For the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12-13, India will host 11 member states and 10 partner countries. Among the world's multilateral groupings, BRICS occupies a unique position, as its supporters, critics and even its members often describe it in different ways. But one point nearly everyone agrees on is that the grouping has surpassed nearly all expectations, including those of former Goldman Sachs economist Lord Jim O'Neill, who first floated BRICS as a concept.
In 2001, O'Neill published a paper arguing that the B-R-I-C nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — would grow much faster than the G7 economies. He said that as these large emerging economies became increasingly influential, institutions governing the global economy would need to give them greater weight.
In 2006, the four countries held their first ministerial meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The meeting, which came months after the ministers had informally met on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in St Petersburg, Russia, marked the beginning of the grouping's institutionalisation. The first BRIC Summit followed in 2009.
Months after the informal meeting at St Petersburg, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia and China, along with India's defence minister, met on the sidelines of the UNGA session. India was represented at the UNGA that year by its defence minister rather than its foreign minister.
The meeting laid the foundation for sustained engagement, eventually leading to the institutionalisation of BRIC and the first leaders' summit.
The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009, with the 2008 global financial crisis regarded as a major catalyst for the four countries coming together. By joining hands, Brazil, Russia, India and China effectively declared that the international system had changed and that global governance needed to evolve accordingly. They argued that if the developed powers were unwilling to grant them a greater voice in global decision-making, they would work to reform the system themselves.
At the third BRICS Summit in Sanya, China, in 2011, the group officially became BRICS with the addition of South Africa.
South Africa was neither as large an economy as India or China nor as militarily influential as Russia, but it was an emerging economy that represented Africa's growing potential. More importantly, its membership transformed the grouping from a club of four major emerging economies into a body that sought to represent the Global South.
The Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014 marked a turning point for the grouping as it finally became what it had long aspired to be. The member states launched the New Development Bank (NDB), originally known as the BRICS Development Bank, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).
The NDB was established to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS member states and other developing countries. The CRA was designed as a financial safety net for member countries facing liquidity pressures.
Together, the two institutions fulfilled a central objective of the grouping. BRICS was founded on the belief that the existing international economic order, including institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), did not adequately reflect the interests of emerging economies. Establishing their own institutions was therefore seen as a way to better serve countries and populations that they believed remained underserved.
For years, BRICS countries had advocated reforms of the IMF and the World Bank. By 2014, they had established institutions of their own. But these were not intended to replace or compete with the IMF and the World Bank. Instead, they were designed to complement the existing system and work alongside it.
The following year, at Xiamen, China, the member states launched the BRICS Plus initiative, sowing the seeds for the grouping's future expansion. After years of debate, the issue was no longer whether BRICS should expand but how it should do so.
The 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2023 marked the point at which BRICS began its transformation from a five-member grouping into a broader representative body of the Global South.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that six countries — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — had been invited to join the grouping. All except Argentina accepted the invitation.
The 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in 2024 was the first BRICS Summit to be held with the expanded membership.
BRICS also rolled out a new category of partner countries that allowed more countries to engage with the grouping without becoming full members.
At the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2025, Indonesia joined BRICS, transforming it into an 11-member grouping and extending its reach into Southeast Asia.
The evolution from the original four-country BRIC concept to today's 11-member BRICS reflects the grouping's expanding role in global governance, while its institutions, wider membership and partner-country category have continued to shape its engagement with the developing world.
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