Major Emerging Economies Struggle to Reach Consensus as New Members Question South Africa’s Candidacy on General Assembly Sidelines
For the first time since its inception, a BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New York ended without a joint statement, highlighting the challenges of finding consensus after the addition of new members last year. The meeting, held alongside the United Nations General Assembly, aimed to finalize a comprehensive 52-paragraph text addressing key issues such as the Middle East conflict, plans for a shared currency, and preliminary discussions on expanding BRICS membership ahead of the upcoming summit in Kazan, Russia, this October.
However, reports from the Brazilian news portal UOL, confirmed by the Post, indicated that the meeting ended in a deadlock. One of the conditions set by India and Brazil during last year’s expansion was that new members would support the aspirations of India, Brazil, and South Africa for permanent seats on the UN Security Council. But this consensus was disrupted when Egypt and Ethiopia refused to sign the communique, arguing that there was no agreement on which country should represent Africa on the UN’s highest body.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, chairing the meeting, emphasized that Egypt and Ethiopia were aware of this condition when they joined BRICS. Yet, their stance led Vieira to call off the meeting altogether. Joel Souza Pinto Sampaio, who heads Vieira’s communications team, confirmed the stalemate, noting, “There was no consensus here,” but assured that diplomatic efforts would continue until the summit in Kazan.
Diplomats, known as sherpas, are tasked with negotiating the finer details ahead of international summits, and they will continue working to bridge the differences before next month’s summit. Another source described the situation as a “serious disagreement,” while Chinese and Indian missions in New York remained silent on the matter. Interestingly, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar avoided addressing the deadlock, instead focusing on “reforming multilateralism and strengthening development” in his post-meeting comments.
Since its creation in 2006, the BRICS group – originally composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010 – has grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, effective January 1, 2024, though Saudi Arabia has yet to confirm its membership. As the group gears up for its leaders’ summit in October, finding consensus might become more challenging with the rising interest from other countries seeking to join, such as Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey. In fact, Turkey, which sent observers to a BRICS summit in South Africa in 2018, is expected to have its membership application reviewed at the Kazan summit, potentially becoming the first NATO member to join BRICS.
Amid the recent disagreements, Russia and Turkey are also set to hold separate talks with Egypt and Ethiopia, as the group seeks to navigate these complexities ahead of the October summit.
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