With the first day of meetings of the BRICS 2025 Summit coming to a close, the bloc’s member economies adopted the BRICS Summit Declaration that encapsulates the main messages of the grouping to the world community. In the economic sphere the main points addressed in the Declaration centered on the reforms of global international institutions such as the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank as well as the introduction of new mechanisms such as the BRICS Multilateral Guarantees (BMG) initiative. Perhaps some of the most important messages in the Declaration were at the very end of the document with respect to the modalities of expansion and the maintenance of the principle of consensus among BRICS members.
With respect to IMF reform (Paragraph 11 of the declaration), the focus centered on the quota share realignment that should reflect the changing realities in the global economy in terms of the rising role of developing countries: “We urge the IMF Executive Board to fulfil the mandate set by the Board of Governors to develop approaches to quota share realignment, including through a new quota formula, under the 17th GRQ at the earliest possible time… We reiterate that further quota realignment in the IMF should not come at the expense of developing countries, reflecting countries’ relative positions in the global economy, and increasing the shares of EMDEs”.
On WTO reform and global protectionist pressures (Para 13) there was the expected rhetoric concerning the protectionist pressures in the world economy (without the specific attribution to any country), with the BRICS economies yet again expressing support for the WTO as the cornerstone of the global trading system: “We voice serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules. In this context, we reiterate our support for the rules-based, open, transparent, fair, inclusive, equitable, non-discriminatory, consensus-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, with special and differential treatment (S&DT) for its developing members”. The declaration also called for the restoration of the WTO dispute settlement system and expressed support for the accession of two core BRICS economies into the WTO, namely Iran and Ethiopia.
The main innovation this year came with Brazil’s proposal to create the BRICS Multilateral Guarantees (BMG) initiative (para 48) – something that in our view will address one of the key weaknesses in the mechanism of intra-BRICS investment cooperation thus far: “We have commenced the discussions to establish a BRICS Multilateral Guarantees (BMG) initiative … [that] aims to offer tailored guarantee instruments to de-risk strategic investment and improve creditworthiness in the BRICS and the Global South. Building on the lessons of international experiences, we agreed on the guidelines to incubate the BMG within the NDB as a pilot initiative, starting with its members, without additional capital contributions. We look forward to developing this pilot initiative throughout 2025 with a view to reporting on progress at the 2026 BRICS Summit”. The implementation of the initiative should be conducive to raising significantly the scale of co-financing of BRICS/Global South development projects by the private sector.
Perhaps the most important messages in the statement were related to the further expansion in membership and the maintenance of consensus among members (Para 124): “We acknowledge that BRICS growing membership and thematic agenda require adjustments of the group’s working methods. In this regard, we acknowledge the ongoing efforts to update the BRICS Terms of Reference and encourage that this process is carried forward.” My interpretation of these statements is that there may be a need to pause with further membership expansion and work on the modalities of further admissions (perhaps also via articulating more explicit criteria). At the same time, in that very same paragraph there is an important reference to the principle of consensus that is to remain the loadstar of BRICS operations: “We support the refinement of existing practices to ensure that BRICS remains effective, efficient, responsive, inclusive and consensus-based”. Last but not least, the statement also notes the importance for BRICS to be extrovert and open to other developing economies – something that could be interpreted as support for the BRICS outreach activities and the BRICS+ format (the latter, however, is not explicitly mentioned in the Declaration): “We underscore our strong belief that extending the BRICS dialogue and partnership with EMDCs will further contribute to strengthening the spirit of solidarity and true international cooperation for the benefit of all.”
Overall, the Declaration reflects the consensus attained by the BRICS grouping within the context of expanded membership, with cautious progression towards new initiatives and the main focus being directed at the integration of new members into the BRICS core. The centrality of the consensus principle underscored in the Declaration likely means that there could be limited scope for plurilateral agreements within BRICS to be forged in the near-term. The unused reserves in BRICS economic policy coordination pertain to South-South trade liberalization, most notably via the cooperation among the regional integration agreements of the Global South. Greater coordination among the regional development institutions of the Global South and their cooperation with NDB could have also been explored by BRICS in greater depth given the rising financing needs of the BRICS+ economies. We continue to expect these important policy tracks to be addressed by the future BRICS Presidencies in the coming years.
You can find the document of the Final Declaration of the BRICS 2025 Summit via the following link:
https://dirco.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025.07.05.-BRICS-Leaders-Declaration.pdf
Yaroslav Lissovolik, Founder, BRICS+ Analytics
Image by VCG via CGTN