When South Africa鈥檚 president Cyril Ramaphosa in a media briefing at the end of last week鈥檚 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, he described the bloc as "an equal partnership of countries that have differing views but have a shared vision for a better world." With the addition of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, the new BRICS will represent 46 percent of the world population and account for roughly 37 percent of global GDP when measured at purchasing power parity. Whether it will really be an 鈥渆qual partnership鈥 remains to be seen, however, as China鈥檚 economic dominance within the group is quite striking.
Looking at 2022 GDP in international dollars at purchasing power parity, China鈥檚 economy is two and a half times the size of India鈥檚, the second largest economy withing the bloc. Even more strikingly, the GDP of the remaining nine (future) BRICS members combined adds up to just over half of China鈥檚 economic output, making it hard to imagine China鈥檚 voice having an equal weight in future negotiations within the group. As a recent Pew Research Group survey revealed, China鈥檚 role on the world stage is viewed with a lot of skepticism even among its partners, with the majority of respondents in India, Brazil and Argentina thinking that China would barely take their own country鈥檚 interests into account when making international policy decisions.
