The big countries of emerging markets are trying to turn the team BRICS In a global forum capable of dealing with the economic and political chaos launched by US president’s trade war Donald Trump.
BRICS Foreign Ministers named after its founding members-Brazil, Russia, India, China and, later, South Africa-are meeting today (28.4.2025) for the first time since Trump’s policies overturned not only the world economy, but also the 20th of the world,
The turmoil has put the BRICS team to take advantage of the kind of worldwide influence that its most prominent members have long been seeking, especially after expanding their roster to include new nations – Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and Iran. The block now represents about half the population of the planet and about 40% of world GDP.
During a two -day meeting in Rio de Janeiro, BRICS Foreign Ministers will spend enough time to discuss how to react to Trump’s duties. China, which faces 145% contributions to most exports to the US, has stated that it would like to use the meeting to react to the US.
When asked about China’s expectations of the meeting in an update last week, a country’s finance ministry spokesman avoided naming the US, but criticized those who “use the big duty stick, sabotage international justice and ranking”.
The spokesman also called for “closer cooperation” and “joint effort” between the BRICS countries. In a statement published tomorrow Tuesday (29.4.2025), BRICS Foreign Ministers will have strong words against unilateral trade measures, without mentioning Trump or the US, according to two Brazilian government officials.
While other countries would like the group to publicly reprimand Trump, this is not the agreement between its members, they said, asking anonymity to talk about ongoing discussions. The ability to find consensus between different views is exactly what BRICS should show in order to prove that they can avoid deep divisions that have eroded the effectiveness of institutions such as the United Nations and the G-20.
In Rio, foreign ministers will begin talks on the priorities of the annual Brazilian Presidency in BRICS with more aggressive climate change action, improvement in public health cooperation, strengthening trade ties between Member States and defending its own.
Brazilian officials warn that the purpose of the block, which was formed almost two decades ago, was never to challenge the US international leadership or to dismantle a world order under the leadership of Washington and the West. “The view that the BRICS is an anti -American block is completely wrong,” Brazilian Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio said in February during a preparatory meeting in Brasilia. “The block was created to promote the growth of developing countries and not to compete with rich countries.”
The Brazilian agenda, however, has placed the BRICS as a potential stronghold of multimedia at a time when Trump has hit duties on almost all nations, and has turned his back on world institutions and agreements. From taking over his duties in January, he has removed the US from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization, removed the country’s main assistance service and expressed doubts about the continuation of US participation in the G-20. An important sign that BRICS nations may intensify their efforts to fill the resulting gap last week, when Brazil and the UN organized a virtual event for climate change, which was attended by more than twelve world leaders.
Trump and the US were not invited- instead, China’s Xi Jinping was the protagonist, who pledged that his nation would remain committed to global collaboration for the climate race “regardless of changes in the international landscape”. The event was the most recent indication of Si’s growing efforts to present Beijing as a more friendly and reliable Trump US ally, as it seeks to deepen its links with other parts of the world – including the European Union, with which it is in dispute.
Intensification of trade ties
It was also a demonstration of power for Luis Ininio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who brought leaders such as Si, French Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Laien together to prepare his event. Despite his random passage as president of the G-20 last year, Lula continued to claim his position in big world discussions.
He served a key role in the final negotiations on a trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, a South American Customs Union, at the end of 2024. Both Macron and UN Secretary -General Antonio Guterres also sought his voice in the world.
“Brazil plays an increasingly leading role in Geopolitics, hosting the BRICS Summit this year, pushing for the Mercosur agreement, seeking to increase intra -regional trade and generally defending the multilateral institutions and the multilateral trading system,” Bloomberg Economics.
Lula is now pushing the BRICS nations to improve trade ties to enhance their power globally – and against the unilateral decisions of Trump and the US. The creation of a common currency, an idea that led Trump to threaten 100% against the members of the bloc, “is not under discussion,” Lyrio said in February. But Brazil wants to continue efforts to develop local payment and media systems that can better facilitate trade and investment between nations, a long -term priority of BRICS.
This, however, refers to one of the problems that the BRICS have pursued since their establishment. The team has always had more ambitions than achievements, in part because its members struggled to find themselves on the same page about its ultimate goals. Beijing traditionally sees BRICS as part of its effort to deal with the US, but others have gone more carefully to avoid annoying Western allies.
Border disputes have worn out the relations between China and India, the team’s two largest economies, and Prime Minister Narendra Monty has intensified his efforts to come closer to Washington after Trump’s return. The expansion has made BRICS even less coherent, especially compared to blocks such as the G-7, the team of rich western states dominated by the world order.
And while Trump created an opening, his trade war with China also forced every nation to individual trade negotiations that are in danger of undermining Lula’s calls to show strength by staying united. “We cannot continue to look for individual outlets for each country,” the Brazilian leader said in a speech in March. “People are divided into blocks and anyone who is more organized can do more.”