Amid crisis, Pakistan expresses interest in joining BRICS

Amid a deepening economic crisis and stalled talks with International Monetary Fund to get loans, Pakistan has expressed its interest in joining the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Islamabad’s aspirations will be deliberated upon at the group’s upcoming summit in South Africa in August.

Pakistan is among nineteen countries that have expressed their interest in joining the BRICS, and these aspirations will be deliberated upon at the group’s upcoming summit in South Africa in August.

Although one of the country’s primary foreign policy agendas is to apply for membership in the BRICS, member states have expressed any enthusiasm within the grouping to include Pakistan, in spite of China’s presence. There is fear among the grouping that any attempt to include Pakistan as part of the grouping could weaken the credibility of the BRICS with India withdrawing from any willing participation in the grouping. If India chooses to refrain from active participation in the group, it will deny the grouping of one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies, consumer markets and advanced manufacturing hubs.

Why Pakistan cannot be allowed to join BRICS is due to concerns on finance, specifically BRICS’s direct challenge to the G7 in terms of economics and trade. In terms of GDP purchasing power parity (PPP), China is the world’s largest economy followed by India in third place, Russia in sixth and Brazil in eighth. As a grouping, they represent 31.5 percent of the global GDP while G7’s share has dropped to 30 percent.