BRICS is an intergovernmental organization and a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South. The acronym was originally coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill to designate the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) based on their dynamic economic growth. The political initiative to form the group began with a meeting of Foreign Ministers in 2006, and the first official summit of Heads of State was held in 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The group was formed to strengthen cooperation among members and increase the influence of emerging economies in global governance, particularly in response to the perceived dominance of Western powers in institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
The mechanism of BRICS revolves around three core pillars: political and security cooperation, economic and financial cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges. A key institution connected to BRICS is the New Development Bank (NDB), a multilateral development bank established in 2014 at the Fortaleza summit with an initial authorized capital of US$100 billion. The NDB's purpose is to mobilize resources to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in member countries. The group also established a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), a financial safety net worth over US$100 billion, to provide liquidity protection during balance of payments problems.
The group has undergone significant expansion recently: South Africa joined in 2011, adding the 'S' to the acronym. The most recent expansion was defined at the Johannesburg Summit in 2023, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates officially joining in January 2024. Indonesia also joined in 2025. This expansion, which increased the number of full members to eleven, was driven by a plan to build a competing multipolar world order and challenge the Western-dominated system. The group also introduced a "partner countries" category in 2024 for nations like Belarus, Bolivia, and Thailand.