On the first day of the two-day 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, members of the bloc unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration. This decision spoke for a group that accounts for around 50% of the world’s population and about 40% of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms. However, this economically powerful group did not include Pakistan. Despite its application in 2023, Islamabad’s bid for membership has been stalled for the past three years. Needless to say, Pakistan’s determination to join the bloc rests on tangible economic interests and substantive reasoning. The first reason could be identified as the need for finance. The recent declaration called for more local-currency financing, primarily through the New Development Bank. The Pakistan Economic Survey puts Pakistan’s GDP growth rate at just 3.7%. This, coupled with the country’s continued reliance on IMF programmes, justifies an additional source of development finance, which would serve as an economic fallback.

Moreover, the declaration also posits that IMF voting shares and quotas should correspond to each country’s respective economic standing, while affording protection to the poorest members. Quite evidently, Pakistan is also a recurring borrower from the institutions that BRICS seeks to reform. Yet, it remains unable to gain a seat at the table where such reform is being negotiated. Additionally, it is posited that Pakistan’s pursuit of BRICS........

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