BRICS-US Dilemma: Should the US be worried about BRICS?

Image Credit: Google

Adil Javed

The BRICS counties have number of advantages over the United States in certain areas that has created concerns and raised a question that US should be worried from the emergence and consolidation of BRICS or not? As BRICS US rivalry and comparison is obvious due to these reasons.

Experts from across the world are talking about US and BRICS tug of war. US itself considers the BRICS as the greatest concern of the time with respect to US hegemony.  There are different areas on the basis of which we can say that United State should worry about the emergence of BRICS.

Population of the BRICS countries are greater than the US Population of 330 million. This provides the large pool of labor and consumers to the BRICS countries.

The BRICS nations are growing faster than US as forecasted by International Monetary Fund (IMF) that expected 4.5 % growth of these countries by the end of 2023 while US economy is expected to grow 2.3 %.

Although, United States is abundant in multiple natural resources, but it is also greatly dependant on many other states.  BRICS countries are rich in terms of natural resources. Like, Brazil has large reserves of iron ore and oil as it is world’s second largest producer of iron ore. Russia being the world’s largest producer, is rich in oil and gas; India has large reserves of coal and iron ore. Similarly, China has large reserves of precious earth metals and coal while South Africa is enriched in gold and platinum.

There is another point of concern for United States and other Western economies that BRICS countries are increasing their intra bloc trade as well as catching eyes of the other developing countries. Hence, reducing the trade and dependence on US and its allies. In just 2022, BRICS intra bloc trade estimated $542 billion increasing from $433 billion in 2021.

Research and Development in another sector that is getting heavy investment by the BRICS nations. Like, China followed by other countries in the bloc, producing heavy numbers of smartphones and electronic devices. In an estimate of overall BRICS investment in research and development, $1.1 trillion was spent during 2022.

The rise of BRICS nations is a significant challenge for US hegemony and particularly for its currency that has dominated the world from decades. BRICS Currency is also posing a greatest challenge for dollar as de-dollarization has become the buzzword of the threat of the time.

The United States will need to carefully manage its relationships with allies and the emerging nations to evade this US BRICS dilemma.