The BRICS summit is underway in Russia

Leaders of BRICS, a group of the world’s emerging economies, are attending the group’s 16th summit this week, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan, a city in southwest Russia.

This year, 36 countries are participating in the three-day conference, as the group has expanded widely beyond its founding members — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — to become a global economic force. It newest members are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

An upside-down world

The group, which often presents itself as a counterweight to the Western-dominated world order, now accounts for more than one-third of global economic output (PPP adjusted) — a figure that’s only expected to rise in the coming years. The ascendence of the BRICS has been well telegraphed, with the term originally coined by a Goldman Sachs economist way back in 2001, but the group didn’t officially meet at a summit until 2009. By the end of the decade, BRICS’ share of global GDP is expected to rise to nearly 40%.

With the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant of Putin in the background, this year’s meeting feels particularly pointed — a show to prove to the West that Russia isn’t isolated, despite the widespread condemnation of its invasion of Ukraine.

So, what do the BRICS want? Though the group’s actual structure is informal, one of the group’s key goals is de-dollarization, or pivoting away from the US dollar as the main currency for international trade. For countries that are heavily subjected to tough Western economic sanctions, like China and Russia, this would help capital flow free of US pressure and influence. So far, practical changes have been relatively insignificant: China now has an alternative to the SWIFT payment system (though it’s lightly used) and some countries have switched their currency reserves from dollars to gold.