Egypt, Ethiopia set to join BRICS in January as bloc expands

Points clés à retenir

The expansion would unite some of the world’s largest oil producers with the developing world’s biggest consumers: With the addition of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran, this expanded group would include three of the world’s largest oil exporters and would constitute 42 percent of global oil supply. Ethiopia and Egypt alone have over 100m people each.  And for the latter, its control of the Suez Canal—a route that shortens travel time between Asia and the Middle East to Europe is crucial to global trade—makes it even more relevant in international politics. Together, the new BRICS would represent almost half the world’s population and account for about half of global oil production. But beyond its ambitions of usurping a US-dominated world or being a 'voice of the Global South', the new bloc could become a crucial additional source of funding to address some of the continent’s pressing challenges.