Brics turns 25: How a Goldman Sachs acronym became a global power bloc

The 18th Brics Summit is set to take place in New Delhi on September 12-13, bringing together leaders of the expanded grouping at a time when wars, trade tensions and a shifting global order are testing its ability to act as a united bloc.India is hosting the summit as the current Brics chair, with the grouping now comprising 11 members and 10 partner countries.Under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” New Delhi has placed greater focus on cooperation across economic and financial issues, technology, energy, development and global governance.The scale of that transformation becomes clearer when traced back to the origins of Brics, a term coined 25 years ago by a Goldman Sachs economist to describe four emerging economies that he believed would become major drivers of global growth.From a Wall Street acronym to a global groupingTwenty-five years ago, Brics did not exist as a political grouping. It was a term coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China as emerging economies that could become major drivers of global growth.His paper, Building Better Global Economic BRICs, argued that the weight of these economies in the world economy would rise significantly and called for their greater representation in global policymaking forums.The transition from an economic concept to a government-led grouping began in 2006, when the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The first summit of their leaders followed in 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, giving the grouping a formal leaders-level platform.The following year, South Africa joined, turning BRIC into Brics and giving the grouping its first member from Africa.The next major transformation came at the 2023 Johannesburg Summit, when Brics agreed to its first large-scale expansion. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were invited to join from January 1, 2024. Indonesia subsequently became the bloc's 11th full member in January 2025.The expansion also created a partner-country category, allowing a wider group of developing economies to engage with Brics without becoming full members.Why Brics matters in the changing global orderBrics has evolved from a forum focused largely on economic cooperation into a broader platform for emerging and developing economies seeking a greater role in global governance.Its members have repeatedly called for reforms in institutions such as the United Nations and international financial institutions, arguing that the architecture of global governance should better reflect the changing balance of economic power.Its growing importance is also backed by institutions created by the grouping itself. The New Development Bank, established in 2015, was designed to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable-development projects in Brics and other emerging and developing economies.The bloc's significance has increased further with its expansion. The addition of countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia has widened Brics' economic and geographic reach and strengthened its claim to be a platform for the Global South.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.