BRICS expansion: What's Africa's role in the global order?

Egypt and Ethiopia have for the first time participated in a BRICS summit following an expansion to its membership.

The alliance that initially referred to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is gradually becoming a bigger body after also welcoming Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into its fold.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS closing session in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan said all countries joining the bloc "share similar aspirations and values and a vision of new democratic global order."

The three-day summit, which ended on Thursday, also provided a platform for member countries to discuss plans to deepen financial cooperation and develop alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems.

Africa's position amid BRICS expansion

Expanding the BRICS group was something many experts said would help African countries reposition themselves in the globe.

"I actually see a lot of African countries joining because Africa wants a new world power that would crush the existing global power and some would join for various reasons including [improving their economies and trade]," Dr. Michael Ndimancho, a political analyst at the University of Douala in Cameroon, told DW.

A. L. Kitenge Lubanda, a Congolese affairs analyst, told DW that other natural resource-rich nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must join BRICS to avail of its many benefits.

"Being part of a much larger whole is a viable ambition," Lubanda said. "You know, today, strategic materials, I'm talking about cobalt, coltan, zinc and all the other mining materials that make China powerful today, come from the DRC." 

Africa has for a long time had ties with Western countries but the emergence of China and Russia, key members of the BRICS, has somewhat diminished Western influence over the past few decades.

Some analysts say South Africa's membership of BRICS has given many African countries hope that they could also be part of the new global force.

What does BRICS offer Africa?

"BRICS is bringing in a new dynamic, that Africans have not seen for some time. Remember that Africans were dealing with an old system. A system that they have known through slavery, slave trade, colonialism, imperialism and all of those," Ndimancho said.

South Africa said that it values Moscow's friendship.

"We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a bilateral meeting with Putin on the eve of the summit.

Ndimancho said that Russia and China have made a compelling case for Africa to reposition itself in the creation of a new global order, thanks to their enticing offers in bilateral trade deals.

"Russia is coming in with a lot of proposals for Africans and I think that it has worked for some countries like Egypt with the energy and gas plant," he said, referring to the el-Dabaa nuclear plant, which has been called "the largest project of Russian-Egyptian cooperation" since the 1950s.

"In Nigeria and some of these countries we have seen the examples of how China wants to work," Ndimancho added. 

"And China is luring Africa with the fact that they are not coming with the colonial tendencies, they are coming to play business. They are proposing the economy which Africa needs very much."

The past decade has seen an uptick in commercial and strategic engagements between Africa and BRICS nations, which constitute Africa's largest trading partners and new investors. 

"The BRICS coming into Africa now is to show to the global system that [members] can do business on a level playing ground," Ndimancho said.

"We have never had an european union that is proposing an inclusion of an African country into their partnerships so the BRICS coming into Africa, it is an example to show that China, Russia and partners have good faith."

The risks of African countries joining BRICS

With those opportunities come other risks, including unfavourable trade deals that kill manufacturing and producivity in Africa.

"China pays less [when it comes to import duties], and it is the same picture in the whole of Africa where China is able to ship its products to Africa, almost import-free and this kills local productions, this kills exports and Africa is now remaining at the level of consumption," Ndimancho warned.

Africa has already launched its continental free trading platform to propel the economies of African countries. However, there are fears that growth could suffer if Africa gets destracted by BRICS' expansion.

"But African [countries] cannot all be going to the BRICS. They should first and foremost be able to collaborate and do business. We have regional blocs and within those blocs we even have countries that are actually suffocating."

But Lubanda said African countries can join BRICS and still strengthen all other geopolitical ties both on the continent and with the West.

"We can be in BRICS and have our geopolitical relations with the West without any problem," he said.

"And this is the case today, we have managed to have a certain freedom to have a certain number of activities with some and other activities with others. And I think that this freedom should be respected by everyone."

Edited by: Keith Walker