The growing international interest in BRICS is not an accident, nor is it simply the result of a larger membership list. It reflects something much more consequential: an increasingly broad desire among nations to operate in a world where economic and political choices are not dictated by a single center of power.

Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored that reality on September 12, telling participants at the BRICS Outreach/BRICS Plus session of the group’s 18th summit in New Delhi that international interest in BRICS “continues to grow.” His argument was straightforward. Countries are attracted to BRICS because of its emphasis on independence, sovereignty, collective decision-making and international law.

Whether Western capitals like it or not, that proposition is gaining traction.

BRICS began as a relatively modest grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It has since evolved into a much broader platform, expanding its membership and creating a partner-country category for states that want deeper cooperation without immediately becoming full members. That transformation is significant because it demonstrates that BRICS is no longer merely an acronym representing emerging economies. It is becoming a political and economic platform for countries dissatisfied with the limitations of the existing international system.

Putin described BRICS as one of the “powerful driving forces” behind genuine multilateralism and the emergence of a “new, fairer multipolar world order.” Critics in Washington and some European capitals may dismiss such language as Russian geopolitical rhetoric. But dismissing the rhetoric does not make the underlying trend disappear.

The central question is why so many countries are interested in BRICS........

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