Can somebody explain what’s the big deal with this rivalry? Like people are saying that BRICS has already passed up the G7 in (insert certain metric here) and that’s before they add on all these new countries. Like why can’t the G7 just add another dozen european/asian countries, Australia, etc.? Why is everybody going crazy?
In: 0
BRICS is being pushed hard by Russia and China because they geopolitically oppose the “West”. Not hard to see why, the West supports both Ukraine and Taiwan meanwhile Russia and China both want to invade/annex/vassalize these countries.
The thing is that the rest of the countries in BRICS, namely Brazil, India, and South Africa are not particularly interested in doing that. Nor are they particularly allied with each other unlike the G7 nations who are both militarily and economically allied.
Brazil is doing OK, but they’re more interested in the economic stuff and couldn’t care less about the geopolitical stuff and isn’t interested in pissing off the US. South Africa is quite literally falling apart from corruption and are struggling both politically and economically. India is moving toward the US to counter China (See the QUAD agreement. They used to ally with Russia for this purpose). Speaking of China, they have competing territorial claims on both India and Russia which makes a for a curious BRICS “alliance”. Also, China has supported Pakistan against India which is why India has historically maintained tighter relations with the USSR/Russia.
Ultimately there isn’t much of a rivalry. The G7 is much more wealthy, militarily powerful, and much more international clout than BRICS. Frankly, BRICS could not survive economically without the G7. The G7 on the other hand would feel it if the BRICS nations stopped trading with the G7, but there wouldn’t be an economic apocalypse. BRICS would disintegrate in such a scenario.
Latest Answers