BRICS, geopolitics and agriculture

South Africa has been in the global media over the past two months for all the wrong reasons. Most of it falls in the category of scoring own goals! August will be dominated by the BRICS summit that will take place in South Africa, and it is necessary to consider the context of the summit as well as the possible advantages it may have for South Africa and for agriculture specifically.

- Theo Venter

The 15th BRICS summit will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg from 22 to 24 August. Apart from the five main members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), several other nations with interest were invited, including a number of African countries and also Argentina and Iran. Some of the other potential BRICS partners are countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Factors that contribute to the context of the summit include the war in Ukraine, the visit of the African delegation to Ukraine and Russia, the Wagner uprising in Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s decision not to physically attend the summit due to a warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court, as well as the fact that Russia has withdrawn from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal.

NEARLY A THIRD OF GLOBAL GDP 

The BRICS countries occupy about 30% of the global land mass and represents 42% of the global population, with India (1,429 billion) and China (1,425 billion) having the two largest populations on earth. Both Brazil (216 million) and Russia (144 million) also have large populations, and the population size and economy of South Africa (60 million) represent the small ‘BRIC’ in the wall!