World leaders attend the 2025 BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025. Photo courtesy the Government of India/Wikimedia Commons.

From July 6 to 7, BRICS—a bloc of rising powers once dismissed as a loose economic coalition—held its 17th annual summit in Rio de Janeiro. Leaders from Brazil, India, and South Africa were present, while China and Russia sent top officials. Against the backdrop of growing global polarization and open threats from the United States, the summit signalled that BRICS is no longer just a talking shop; it is becoming a force Washington can’t ignore.

US President Donald Trump’s threats loomed over the summit. On its opening day, Trump announced 10 percent tariffs on any country “aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS.” These are not Trump’s first attacks on the organization. In 2024, Trump announced 100 percent tariffs on BRICS countries if they pursued the creation of their own currency to rival the US dollar. His TruthSocial post from the time read: “We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy.”

Despite Washington’s warnings, BRICS keeps expanding. In 2025, Indonesia became a full member, joining Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. There are also 10 “partner countries” in BRICS, whose representatives can attend summits although they have no decision-making power. These are Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, the latter of which became the organization’s tenth partner country last month. Algeria and Türkiye have been invited to join as partner countries, while Saudi Arabia has been asked to join as a member. Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Venezuela have applied for BRICS membership (though Brazil vetoed Venezuela’s entry into the bloc in 2024).

Cumulatively, BRICS’s 10 members and 10 partner countries comprise 56 percent of the world’s population and 44 percent of global GDP. They are the global majority in population and may soon become the global majority in economic production.

This year’s summit was held under the theme “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.” Speaking at the assembly, Brazil’s President Lula stated: “BRICS is the heir to the Non-Aligned Movement… With multilateralism under attack, our autonomy is in check once again.”

Over the past five years, numerous international crises have put a merciless spotlight on the inequity embedded in the prevailing global system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine apartheid between Northern and Southern nations showed the failure of global medical systems under the US-led capitalist order. COVID was followed by a worldwide energy crisis that illuminated the same global inequities, as Amy Myers Jaffe writes: “Europe’s intensive energy stockpiling in the summer of 2022 caused a huge jump in global prices for liquefied natural gas. In response, many utilities in less developed nations cut their natural gas purchases, creating price-related electricity outages in some regions.”

On vaccine apartheid and the energy crisis, Tim Sahay and Kate McKenzie note:

Since 2020, the consolidation of BRICS has accelerated. At this year’s summit, members adopted “126 commitments covering global governance, finance, health, artificial intelligence, climate change, and other strategic areas.” The organization also committed to strengthening cooperation amongst member states in three areas: “politics and security, economy and finance, and........

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