Brazil Now Main Holdout Against BRICS Expansion, Sources Say

• Brazil has resisted gathering momentum in the BRICS group of major emerging economies to add more member countries, but the debate over admission criteria seems inevitable at this month's summit, three Brazilian government officials told Reuters.
• The group including Russia, India, China and South Africa, has been hailed by some as a counterweight to traditional diplomatic forums like the G7. BRICS makes decisions by consensus, so Brazil's assent will be key to any expansion.
• The BRICS group accounts for more than 40% of the world population and about 26% of the global economy and offers an alternative forum for countries outside diplomatic channels seen as dominated by traditional Western powers. Its influence and economic heft have more nations eager to join.
• China, looking to increase its political clout at a time of trade tensions with the United States, has long pushed to expand BRICS membership. Russia, isolated diplomatically over its war in Ukraine, is also embracing the chance to court allies.
• South Africa, which chairs the group this year, held a "Friends of BRICS" meeting in June with several countries eager to join. Even India, which was wary of rapid expansion, may have come around to the idea in principle, sources said.
• However, Brazil is concerned the group will lose its stature if other nations are let in. Some 30 countries have said they are interested and 22 of them have formally applied, as Algeria did last month.
• "An expansion could transform the bloc into something else," said a Brazilian official, who asked not to be named. "Brazil's position has been concerned with the cohesion of the group and preservation of our space in a group of important countries."
• Diplomats were told to go back to the drawing board and design a process for admitting new members acceptable to the entire group. Without an agreement, the matter is not expected to be settled at this month's summit.

(Source: Reuters)