Six countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt were invited to join BRICS in 2024. Iran emerges as the biggest winner, holding the world's second-largest gas reserves and roughly 25% of global oil, now able to escape U.S. political isolation through stronger ties with non-Western powers.
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Hello everyone and welcome to Geopolitical Trends. As geopolitical analyst, I ask, who was the biggest beneficiary following the recent BRICS summit in South Africa? In this video, I'm going to share with you my assessments and of course answer this question for you. Let's dive in. Now, as we all know, the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa— This is the collective countries, the summit which just concluded, the summit which just concluded in South Africa. And many observers are like wondering who really benefited from this summit. Who was the beneficiary this time around? Was it India? Was it Russia? Was it China or none? Now, what was interesting about this? So it is by now common knowledge that BRICS, as I said earlier, consists of Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa, considered— are considered some sort of emerging economies in the world and are now at a crossroads because it depends how they're gonna proceed, which they have to proceed strategically. One of the key elements has to do with expansion, and that is exactly what this summit in Johannesburg in South Africa has achieved. What do I mean by that? You have about more than 40 countries that expressed interest in joining BRICS. Out of those, 14 countries have formally applied, and 6 out of those will be officially joining BRICS in 2024, next year. So this is why BRICS announced that the 6 more countries will be invited to join BRICS as members. That means they will go in or officially be, be admitted. So the countries are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. So those have been, as I said, officially invited for next year's summit. So here's my assessment, the way I see it. You're gonna have to look at this from two separate angles, okay, or two priorities, if I may use the term. One of them is geopolitical, of course, and the other one is economic, or there is a term called as geoeconomics. So geoeconomics and geopolitics, those are the two sort of priorities you have to consider that, and there is a reason for that. So, and I will detail this as I disclose who the beneficiary, in my opinion. I could be wrong, someone else might disagree with me, and that's fine. So the summit did have some surprises when considering, for instance, how many countries from the Arab world, mainly the Middle East— and you ask yourself, why the Middle East? We all know, oil reserves. So from the Middle East who've expressed their desire to join BRICS, what are we talking about here? We're talking about Saudi Arabia, we're talking about United Arab Emirates, And we're talking about Egypt. Even Egypt is considered in the Middle East, but of course it's in Africa, but the whole region is considered Middle East at that point. So then you look at, at Argentina and Ethiopia, which was considered to be included soon. So the biggest surprise within this, you know what it was? It was that Indonesia was overlooked, and the question is why. So, because Indonesia, as you may heard, it was among the top. A lot of people were saying, how about replacing Iran, uh, replacing India with Indonesia, so Indonesia can replace India. So, and apparently Indonesia didn't make the cut. And makes you wonder why. Now you see why I had to warn you about reading articles pertaining to Indonesia, how they can be manipulative because they want to influence the masses to think differently about Indonesia. So Indonesia can stay neutral, especially when it comes down to the conflict between US, or rivalry rather, not a conflict, a rivalry between China and the US. But so far, what I am observing, what I am reading, is that some, some authors, some institutions, some academias, all of them are wording the analysis in the direction to manipulate the masses, that, oh my gosh, Indonesia will have to— it's gonna be sort of pulled in into the conflict. No, no, no, no, no, it's a lie. So, but at the same time, you look at now with BRICS, everybody was thinking Indonesia didn't even make the cut, and makes you just ask the question, why? So let's go back to our fundamental question, and the fundamental question: who the real beneficiary of this summit, the BRICS summit that was just concluded recently? Well, I have to say, and this is my opinion and my answer, is Iran. Yeah, Iran. And here is why Iran. In addition to having or holding the world's second— yeah, listen carefully, guys— the world's second largest gas reserves, Iran also holds about 25% of the world oil reserves. So for BRICS and Iran, it's a win-win situation. That's the way I see it. And the way it works for Iran, geo-economically and geopolitically, is that for Iran, it gets to, it gets to strengthen its economic and political ties with non-Western powers. At the same time, BRICS gets to have access to unlimited energy. I know there are some rumors about, uh, France asking India not to let Algeria in or something. I'm not sure of this. I'm gonna look into that and report back to you. Now, my answer about Iran being the beneficiary happens to agree with some other assessments that I read through, and I will share one with you. The one that I came across was from a professor by the name Danny Bradlow. He is a professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. And to him, similar to the conclusion that I reached, it was clear to him that Iran is the biggest beneficiary. And his arguments for that was that its inclusion will highlight the fact— and these are his words— the fact that it is not politically isolated as the US wants it to be. Spot on, he is spot on, uh, because that's exactly what the benefits for Iran is going to be. So the US thinking they can isolate Iran? No. This is why BRICS and Iran, it's a win-win for both. So, so to, according to Professor Danny Bradlow, this integration you know, will also be an economic lifeline. Remember the US sanctions on Iran? Even with that, Iran still standing. So, and the reason being because it's going to be now bilateral trade between Iran and members of BRICS. That's why I, I saw Iran as the beneficiary, and Professor Bradlow saw the same thing. So, so they are, uh, uh, uh, think like people around the world. So What do you think the main beneficiary— who the main beneficiary in your opinion is? So if you would like to leave me some answers in the comment section, I would really like to know your thinking about it, and we can— I can always elaborate on this in a live stream if you guys would like me to do so. Please hit that like button and don't forget to subscribe, of course, if you like the content of this video. I will greatly appreciate it. As always, remember Geopolitics impacts your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, bye-bye.
