The BRICS economic alliance is expanding as more countries join the push for de-dollarization.
The Brazilian government, which currently presides over the alliance, announced on Friday that Vietnam would join BRICS as a “partner country.”
[adinserter block="1"]Partner countries, a category the bloc established last year, aren’t full-fledged members but are invited to participate in the BRICS summit and can endorse the alliance’s declarations.
Vietnam is the 10th partner country, joining Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
BRICS held its initial summit in 2009 was originally just called BRIC, which stood for its four founding members: Brazil, Russia, India and China. The acronym changed to BRICS after South Africa joined the following year.
In 2024, it expanded membership to other nations, including Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia joined in early 2025.
Brazil also claims that Saudi Arabia is part of the bloc, but the Middle Eastern country has reportedly eschewed formal membership in the intercontinental economic alliance to avoid antagonizing the US.
Brazil says current BRICS priorities include “facilitating economic transactions between bloc countries, such as the use of local currencies; the development of international payment platforms; cooperation in government procurement; and the promotion of trade facilitation measures, among others.”
In 2023, the alliance reportedly began working on creating a common currency backed by gold and potentially additional precious metals and assets to circumvent reliance on the US dollar, though officials from several of the bloc’s member countries claimed in early 2025 that they weren’t pushing for de-dollarization.
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