Heads of state pose for a family photo during the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7 July, 2025. Photo: Pablo Porciuncula / AFP
With BRICS shaking up global politics and economics - and irking Donald Trump - would joining be smart diplomatic strategy for New Zealand, or just risk alienating an ally.
An economic powerhouse is rising on the world stage and changing global rules - so is it time for New Zealand to spread its diplomatic wings and join the group?
BRICS, the powerful bloc of emerging economies led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, could open doors to new markets and strengthen New Zealand's independence on the world stage, says Auckland University Associate Professor in Global Studies Chris Ogden.
"I think the world is in flux - so there's these emerging institutions, like BRICS, and it seems as though a lot of Western institutions are in decline, and the overall global power is shifting towards our region in the Indo-Pacific," he tells The Detail.
"So it feels as though New Zealand should see what the other possibilities are out there, kind of hedge bets but also invest in other relationships, really just to see how things go.
"The other spur was what is happening in the United States - if we were to consider the West as this beacon for democracy and human rights, that's been fundamentally undermined, if not blatantly attacked by the current US president.
"So, I think there is a question mark about what the West is, what the democratic order is, and then what the future is. So, in that sense, New Zealand should plan or at least reflect a bit about where it is going."
BRICS has been expanding its global influence, promoting alternatives to Western-led institutions, such as the G7, IMF and World Bank.
"There was probably a sense from some of those [BRICS] countries, and I think Russia in particular was involved in establishing early on that they wanted some sort of counter balance or a forum to unite and have a voice of their own on world affairs, where it perhaps differed from some of those Western nations," Newsroom national affairs editor Sam Sachdeva says.
"Whether they have succeeded in that all the time or not, I think that is a different matter, but that is certainly the intent behind it."
On whether New Zealand should join BRICS, Sachdeva says "it's certainly an interesting idea ... you could say these are the countries that are probably going to represent the future of our economic and trade relations".
"We have obviously got strong trade relations [and] economic relations with China already. We've got Christopher Luxon working very hard, working overtime to try to get a trade deal with India done ... but I think the problem is [that] the 'R' in BRICS is Russia, that is a big issue for us.
"We've been consistently critical of their war in Ukraine, and the stance they are taking there, and foreign interference by the Russians.
"So that is a big issue, as long as that war is going on, and I think that would be a major impediment to us joining up anytime soon."
The extended BRICS+ now has 20 members and partners, representing about 55 percent of the global population.
The 10 BRICS members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
The 10 BRICS partners are Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Together, the BRICS 20 make up about 40 percent of the global economy.
BRICS has established the New Development Bank to support public and private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation, and other financial means, and there has been talk of a common currency for trade and investment among them, as a means of reducing their vulnerability to dollar exchange rate fluctuations.
That prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten he would put "100 percent tariffs" on BRICS countries unless they committed never to create a "new BRICS currency, nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar".
"BRICS was set up to hurt us, BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar, take it off as the standard," the President said during a cabinet meeting.
In July, he threatened members of BRICS with 10 percent tariffs on goods imported to the US - in addition to other tariffs.
But Ogden says joining BRICS is not just about trade, it is about giving New Zealand a seat at the table in shaping new global financial systems, which could benefit exporters and shield us from the volatility of US dollar dominance.
"I think it's always better for diplomats to be inside the room than outside the room," says Ogden.
"That is where you can influence things, that is where you can change behaviour for the better.
"Overall, I think the economic benefits would be pretty clear, I think diplomatic benefits would be pretty clear, but the biggest issue is the perceptual issue, so would other countries think that's New Zealand rejecting the West, for example."
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