Short answers, pulled from the story.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization whose name derives from its original five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. As of early 2025, the bloc comprises ten full members, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia having joined in 2024-2025.
British economist Jim O'Neill coined the term BRIC in 2001 in a Goldman Sachs publication titled "Building Better Global Economic BRICs." O'Neill was then head of global economics research at Goldman Sachs. The conceptual political origins predate this, tracing to Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov, who articulated the idea of a multipolar grouping in 1998.
The first formal BRICS summit was held on the 16th of June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, chaired by Dmitry Medvedev and attended by the leaders of Brazil, India, and China. The summit focused on the global economic situation during the Great Recession and called for a new global reserve currency described as "diverse, stable and predictable."
The New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states, with a focus on infrastructure lending of up to $34 billion annually. It was signed into existence at the 2014 Fortaleza summit and has a starting capital of $50 billion, with each of the five original members contributing $10 billion. By 2024, it had approved more than $32 billion for 96 projects.
As of 2024, BRICS+ GDP at purchasing power parity reached $51.6 trillion, exceeding the G7's $48 trillion. BRICS+ accounts for 46% of the world's population and generated close to 36% of global GDP. The Economist Intelligence Unit projects BRICS+ economies will overtake the G7 in nominal terms after 2045.
Argentina was invited to join BRICS at the August 2023 Johannesburg summit, with membership set for the 1st of January 2024. The Argentine general election in November 2023 brought Javier Milei to power, and he had committed to withdrawing the application. On the 29th of December 2023, Argentina sent a formal letter to all BRICS leaders officially declining.