Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia will become part of the BRICS countries this Monday, January 1, 2024.
The block now has ten members. In some places the group is referred to as the “Bric10”. Argentina, which was considering joining the bloc, withdrew after the election of President Javier Milei.
The Brics 10 were born with a majority of dictatorships and autocracies. This conclusion comes from an analysis of how the ten members fit into the four categories of VDem, the institute that measures democracies in the world and is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Of the ten Brics 10 countries, none fit into the category of liberal democracies, which, in addition to elections, also have extensive freedom of expression and economic liberalism.
Only Brazil and South Africa belong to the category of electoral democracies.
In the team of electoral autocracies, in which closed regimes hold protocol elections, there are four countries: India, Egypt, Ethiopia and Russia.
The closed autocracies include four others: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the latest VDem ranking, there are more closed autocracies than liberal democracies worldwide for the first time since 1995. The expanded Brics states are therefore a reflection of this increasingly autocratic world.
One of the biggest supporters of the expanded BRICS states is the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
In statements made at the BRICS summit in South Africa in August, Xi said the bloc's expansion was historic and a new beginning for cooperation between the countries.
At the same event, Lula also praised the expansion of the group, which was founded on the initiative of PT member Celso Amorim and Russian Sergei Lavrov.
“We were called the Third World, then they got tired of it and started calling it developing countries, and now we are the Global South.” Look at the name change, how pompous. The important thing is that the world is changing. The economy is also starting to change, geopolitics is starting to change because things are happening and we are realizing that we have to organize,” Lula said.
“Our [bloco, o Brics] Don't just think economically, We also think politically. And that's why I think Brics is established as a reference. Every person, journalist, political scientist who wants to discuss economic geopolitics, scientific and technological geopolitics, geopolitics in general, must also talk to the BRICS countries, not just the United States and the G7 [grupo de sete dos países mais industrializados do mundo]“, explained the President.
As Lula said: The BRICS countries also think politically. And his preference is clearly for the autocracies of the world.