Up to 20 new countries could join the BRICS grouping in the future and several new members are expected to be approved at the upcoming summit on August 20 in South Africa.

The BRICS association, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, could potentially expand and mirror the G20, but with the original members playing a more important coordinating role amongst the leading emerging markets, according to Robinder Sachdev, the head of ImagIndia Institute, a think tank based in New Delhi.

Russia and China have been working actively to create a BRICS+  alliance in the Global South as part of their strategy to create a multipolar world to counter the current unipolar set-up championed by the United States.

One item on the agenda when the five BRICS members meet later this month is to agree on both the criteria for membership and a mechanism to take on new members. However, at this point there is no consensus on either question.

The list of potential applicants has already grown long. The BRICS secretariat has said there are 17 potential candidates, but has not named them. By various accounts, more than two dozen countries could be considered for membership, most in Africa, Latin America, and western and southern Asia.

In an interview with TASS, Sachdev sees expansion of the association as a positive step. He believes that after this initial expansion, the group could consider further enlargement after a period of five years.

However, Sachdev emphasizes the importance of the current BRICS members agreeing on the ideological foundations of the union before pursuing any expansion. The BRICS+ would become a rival to several other international organizations, such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union, Arab League, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), ASEAN, G20, and G7. For the new BRICS+ group to work it needs to define itself and its raison d’etre clearly, Sachdev says.