From January this year, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been inducted as new fully fledged members.
The bloc is also expected to invite more countries to join sometime this year.
By some estimates the BRICS+ countries account for 45 percent of world population, 33 percent of global GDP, and 40 percent of world oil production.
The United States and the European Union are watching these growing developments with concern, with multiple voices and political commentators voicing unease that the bloc poses a threat to them.
A major concern for the United States is that as BRICS expands and even more countries join the bloc, the US dollar will be weakened as more BRICS countries will choose not to trade in the Greenback.
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Already member states, Russia and Iran have, earlier this year, officially ended the SWIFT payment system for trade between themselves.
They have agreed to carry out transactions directly through banks and to trade in local currency and not the US dollar.
If other BRICS countries follow suit, an alternative financial world could be created in which member countries trade in their individual currencies, or they jointly create a new one which would replace the US Dollar as the global financial standard.
If that were to happen the dollar would drop in value, leading to increasing interest rates and higher prices for Americans.
As more countries express interest in joining the bloc, the West will be watching closely to ensure the bloc moves towards the alter-West rather than the anti-West.
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