MIAMI, United States. – The BRICS economic and political platform, founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, made official this Wednesday the incorporation of Cuba as an associate member, along with 12 other nations that also received the green light during its most recent summit, held in the Russian city of Kazan in October 2024.
This bloc, which now opens the doors to Bolivia, Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, will concentrate more than 35% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, the 45% of the global population and covers 30% of the Earth’s surface, according to data released by official media Cubadebate.
Although associate status does not grant Cuba full rights within the bloc, it provides it with alternatives to try to alleviate the serious economic crisis it is going through.
Regarding the advantages that Cuba could bring, Cubadebate highlights “its biotechnological development, the production of medicines and the ability to promote scientific and technological collaboration” within the block. Added to this is the option of carrying out commercial transactions through local currencies, which would allow “reducing dependence on the dollar and opening up to new commercial flows.”
However, the Cuban analyst Orlando Freire Santana wrote last October in CubaNet that the Island did not have “any notable export sector” and that by joining the BRICS as a partner “it would only invoke the pity of the rest of its counterparts in the face of the ‘intensified blockade’ of the United States.”
During the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that more than 30 countries had expressed interest in joining the group under different formats.
The Cuban regime officially requested its accession to the BRICS at the beginning of October 2024, according to reported at that time Carlos Pereira, director of Bilateral Relations of the Cuban Foreign Ministry. The request was made through a letter addressed to Putin, who held the temporary presidency of the group in 2024.
The BRICS group, which in 2010 added South Africa to the founding countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), grew in 2024 under the name BRICS+ and with the incorporation of Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Cuba’s integration as an associate member was announced during the XVI BRICS Summit, held in Kazan, Russia, in the second half of October 2024.
