Vietnam Joins BRICS

From strong anti-terror messaging to leading conversations on trade reform and health equity, BRICS is intent on playing a central role in shaping the world’s future, writes Atanu Pattanaik.

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N 13 June 2025, the world was occupied with the escalation in the Middle East with Israel launching an operation, called "Rising Lion", killing a number of Iranian commanders, scientists and the head of the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard. This escalation would ultimately lead to the US joining the conflict as Israel has been persistently keen since start of the flare up on 7 October 2023. Ten days later, on 22 June 2025, the US Air Force and Navy attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran, viz., the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre with fourteen GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator). President Trump claimed that the bombing had obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities though his own intelligence agencies as well as the IAEA forcefully and very rationally, contradicted his claims. Notwithstanding the bombast and the callous unilateral actions by the US, the very next day President Trump declared a ceasefire on social media. The uneasy truce has largely held, so far.

Exactly on the same day, 13 June 2025, something more momentous was taking place, finding little traction in the west-led narratives-driven corporate media. In its capacity as pro tempore BRICS Chair, the Government of Brazil announces the formal admission of Vietnam as a partner country of the group. Ignoring or trivialising the BRICS expansion by western leaders and media may have been more deliberate than incidental.