Japan
Source: asia.nikkei.com

India assumes BRICS chairmanship amid trade tensions

Experts say New Delhi likely won't pursue 'de-dollarization' and will focus on Global South

NEW DELHI -- India on Thursday formally assumed the rotating presidency of the BRICS grouping for 2026, under which New Delhi is expected to promote inclusive development and amplify the voice of the Global South in international economic governance -- especially at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have shaken up global trade.

BRICS started with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as members, but the bloc now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, which all joined over the past two years. The BRICS website shows Saudi Arabia as its 11th member, but some reports claim that Riyadh has still not formally joined the grouping.

According to a World Bank database, the bloc with 11 members represents around 49% of the world's population, 29% of global gross domestic product and 23% of international trade.

In August, Trump imposed 50% tariffs on India -- including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil. It is the highest rate among U.S. trading partners and was on par with duties slapped on Brazil, which was BRICS' 2025 chair, though Washington removed additional levies on several of Brazil's food products such as coffee and beef in November.

In February, Trump warned the BRICS countries against launching a common currency. "BRICS is dead," he told reporters at the time, adding he had conveyed to the grouping that "if they want to play games with the dollar, then they're going to be hit with a 100% tariff."

According to Prerna Gandhi, an associate fellow at India's Vivekananda International Foundation think tank, "Facing Trump tariffs, India will likely resist confrontational de-dollarization, and instead promote local currency settlements to maintain strategic autonomy" during its BRICS presidency.
"India will also push for reforms in multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund while encouraging dialogue that reduces fragmentation and promotes stability in global supply chains," she told Nikkei Asia.

Raj Kumar Sharma, a senior research fellow at NatStrat, a New Delhi-based think tank, said India will use its BRICS presidency to "defend and strengthen multilateralism against any unilateral impulses."

"There is need to strengthen multilateral trading systems during current times when protectionism and tariffs are increasing. At the same time, India will also support reform of global governance institutions like the United Nations Security Council, the World Bank and the IMF," he said, adding that New Delhi acknowledges structural inequalities in global trade rules and could suggest special and differential treatment for developing countries in the Global South.

Regarding its Global South agenda, Sharma said India will continue what it followed during its Group of 20 presidency in 2023, giving "primacy to human welfare, inclusive development and broad public concerns affecting various countries." He added that the concerns of the Global South, such as those relating to food and fuel shortages, debt restructuring and financial support for coping with climate change, "will be central to India's 2026 BRICS presidency, which could face some challenge from America's G20 presidency in which issues of the Global South may not be adequately highlighted."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 in Tianjin, China, Sept. 1, 2025. (Pool via Reuters)

"India would like to make sure that the voice of the Global South is not lost amidst ongoing great-power rivalry," he said.

Separately, India's archrival and neighbor Pakistan, which is facing economic struggles, is keen to join the BRICS-backed New Development Bank (NDB) to help it diversify its borrowing options. It applied for the BRICS membership itself in 2023 looking at Russia and China for support. "India is likely to push for clearly defined criteria for BRICS membership so that the bloc does not lose its significance due to [any] unplanned expansion," Sharma of NatStrat said.

Gandhi of the VIF said New Delhi has supported enlargement in principle but insists that expansion "should strengthen, not dilute, BRICS' effectiveness" as a platform for development cooperation and global governance reform.

"India has emphasized the need for clear, transparent benchmarks such as economic size, development profile, institutional capacity, and commitment to multilateralism -- rather than politically motivated or ad hoc admissions. It has also stressed that decisions must be taken by full consensus among existing members," she noted while also pointing out that in 2025, BRICS sought to consolidate membership rather than focus on new expansion.

Hong Kong
Source: www.scmp.com

China to lead joint naval drills with Brics nations in South African waters

It is the first defence cooperation under the Brics framework, with the Russian and Iranian navies reportedly taking part

China will lead a joint naval exercise with Brics nations in South African waters next week – the bloc’s first such defence cooperation that is likely to raise alarm bells in Washington.

The South African National Defence Force on Wednesday said the exercise – dubbed Will for Peace 2026 – would bring together “navies from Brics Plus countries for an intensive programme of joint maritime safety operations, interoperability drills and maritime protection serials” from January 9 to 16.

It said China would lead the exercise but did not specify which other countries would attend. Media reports have named Russia and Iran as participants, with Indonesia and Ethiopia also likely to take part.

According to South Africa’s defence ministry, the joint exercise “reflects the collective commitment of all participating navies to safeguard maritime trade routes, enhance shared operational procedures and deepen cooperation in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives”.

The joint drills were previously known as Exercise Mosi and held by China, South Africa and Russia in 2019 and 2023. The latest exercise was originally planned for November 2025 but postponed to avoid clashing with the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg.

Xi issues rallying call against protectionism in Brics speech

Brics – originally comprising the emerging economies of Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa – expanded from 2023 to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

The bloc has mainly focused on economic cooperation and though it has started to play a bigger role in geopolitical issues there has not yet been any defence cooperation under the Brics framework.

As rivalry between the US and China has intensified in recent years, Beijing has touted Brics as a key platform for the Global South to challenge US dominance of the global order. US President Donald Trump has vowed to impose trade sanctions if the group takes moves to dethrone the dollar.

China has sent its Type 052DL guided-missile destroyer the Tangshan, and its Taihu supply ship to take part in next week’s drills, African news portal DefenceWeb reported on Tuesday.

The two vessels – which are part of China’s naval escort taskforce in the Gulf of Aden – stopped in Mombasa, Kenya last Wednesday for maintenance before continuing south.

Iran and Russia have also sent warships to South Africa this week, according to media reports.
Paul Nantulya, an expert on the Chinese military at the US National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, said the exercise continued a pattern of reassigning units already on counter-piracy duty for regional drills and port calls.

But he said the involvement of Iran – whose tensions with America deepened after the US carried out air strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in June – and the rebranding of the drills as a Brics event may mark a departure from the previous two exercises.

“While this specific drill follows a routine pattern for the [People’s Liberation Army], it remains part of a broader trend of expanding Chinese military engagement that is likely to continue throughout 2026,” Nantulya added.

He said the PLA “increasingly sees itself as a global force” and that operating with diverse foreign forces “strengthens its operational capacity and enables it to achieve a level of interoperability with selected partners”.

Brics leaders condemn strikes on Iran and tariffs but avoid direct mention of US, Israel
Mihaela Papa, director of research and principal research scientist at the MIT Centre for International Studies in the US, noted that China avoided formal military alliances.

“[China] instead relies on flexible security cooperation with key non-Western partners, using joint exercises to signal presence and improve operational coordination,” she said.

Analysts also said expanding the joint exercise could undermine Pretoria’s claim of neutrality and put further strain on its relations with the West.

South Africa’s Democratic Alliance, a party in the coalition government, said hosting sanctioned states risked alienating vital Western trading partners.

DA defence spokesman Chris Hattingh told local media that hosting Iran and Russia made it “increasingly difficult for the government to maintain that South Africa is genuinely pursuing a policy of non-alignment”.

Francois Vrey, a professor emeritus of military science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said conducting joint drills with sanctioned nations could worsen relations with the US.

That relationship has soured since Trump returned to the White House, particularly over Pretoria’s land reform policy, a freeze on US aid, and trade.

According to Papa, while strained ties with Washington had reinforced Pretoria’s desire for “strategic autonomy”, South Africa’s leverage remained limited as the US deprioritised African security.

India
Source: www.livemint.com

Robert Kiyosaki explains how BRICS members are forcing US dollar to follow the pattern of a failed reserve currencyKiyosaki warns that the dollar can lose its dominant reserve currency status, unleashing severe consequences for US savers. He compares the potential outcome to past episodes in which former reserve currencies, such as the British pound.

Author and investor Robert Kiyosaki has once again doubled down on his long-awaited stance on the bleak future of the US dollar, arguing that the growing shift by BRICS nations towards non-dollar trade could force the greenback to the status of a failed reserve currency.

Back in the first week of December, the Rich Dad Poor Dad author had echoed a similar view. "Bye-bye US dollar! Stand by, stay awake, stay tuned in. Don’t be a loser. My forecast is that savers of the US dollar will be the biggest losers," Kiyosaki had posted on X.

This time, Kiyosaki traced past geopolitical incidents to show how the US dollar's dominance has been preserved in the global oil market. He cited Iraq’s decision in 2000 to price oil in euros and Libya’s 2009 proposal for a gold-backed African currency, both of which were later followed by military interventions.

"In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced Iraq would sell oil in euros instead of U.S. dollars. Three years later, the United States invaded Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. But Iraqi oil quietly went back to being priced in dollars. Then it happened again. In 2009, Muammar Gaddafi proposed a gold-backed African currency. The gold dinar would have allowed African nations to buy oil without dollars. In 2011, NATO intervened in Libya. Gaddafi was killed. The gold dinar disappeared. Libyan oil went back to dollars," Kiyoaki said in a post on Facebook on December 30.

According to Kiyosaki, these incidents highlight the central role of the “petrodollar” in maintaining the demand for US currency.

He added that when a country challenges the dollar system, it faces economic sanctions, regime change, or military intervention. However, this pattern is likely on the cusp of change.

Kiyosaki argues that China has built dollar-independent infrastructure, with BRICS nations conducting 50% of internal trade in local currencies. Citing an example, he said that Russia reports 90% of China trade uses rubles and yuan.

In such a situation, the military can't enforce a system that dozens of countries are simultaneously abandoning, he said.

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, along with the entry of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, together form the 11-country bloc making up the BRICS nation.

Not just these countries, but globally too, central banks over the last few years have ramped up gold reserves as a sign of the growing trend of de-dollarisation.

An ANI report, citing Goldman Sachs, said that "central bank gold buying to remain strong in 2026, averaging 70 tonnes per month," a level that is “4 times above the 17 tonnes pre-2022 monthly average.”

In 2025, China continued to lead global gold purchases, with India also remaining a steady buyer. According to Sugandha Sachdeva of SS WealthStreet, BRICS nations now control nearly 50% of global gold production and hold a substantial share of official gold reserves.

"While the US continues to hold the world’s largest official gold reserves, BRICS nations collectively now have over 6,000 tonnes. Russia and China alone account for more than 2,000 tonnes each, while India’s reserves exceed 800 tonnes. At the production level, China and Russia remain among the world’s largest gold miners, giving the bloc growing influence over the physical supply chain," she wrote in an article on Mint earlier this week.

Central bank accumulation has quietly become a key tailwind for gold’s bull run, driven by a structural de-dollarisation trend as they trim exposure to the US currency and diversify their reserves.

Against this backdrop, the US dollar weakened in 2025. The US dollar index registered a 9.4% decline in 2025, its biggest drop in eight years, according to a Reuters report.

Dollar can lose its reserve currency status

Therefore, Kiyosaki warns that the dollar can lose its dominant reserve currency status, unleashing severe consequences for US savers.

He compares the potential outcome to past episodes in which former reserve currencies, such as the British pound, lost global dominance and triggered long-term declines in real wealth for domestic savers.

Kiyosaki argues that in a situation where the US dollar faces a threat to its dominance, large volumes of dollars held overseas could flow back into the domestic economy, sharply expanding the money supply and eroding purchasing power.

"It happened to every population holding a dying reserve currency throughout history. Most people will keep their savings in dollars and watch their wealth evaporate," he warned.

Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations expressed are those of individual analysts or broking firms, not Mint. We advise investors to consult with certified experts before making any investment decisions, as market conditions can change rapidly and circumstances may vary.

Singapore
Source: asiatimes.com

Time will tell if BRICS+ currency and payment system is a viable dollar alternative or merely a symbol of ambition

At a major summit in Russia last year, a banknote was unveiled that carried more symbolism than monetary value.

It hinted at the growing ambitions of BRICS+ – a group of emerging economies anchored by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – to develop alternatives to the existing global financial system.

The banknote itself, ringed with national flags and multilingual text, was dubbed an R5: acknowledging the ruble, real, rupee, renminbi and rand of the bloc’s core members.

Now, there are moves to turn that symbolism into something more concrete. This December, speculation increased around plans for a new BRICS+ currency and payment system known as the UNIT.

Designed by the International Reserve and Investment Asset System, the UNIT is backed by a fixed reserve basket of 40% gold (by weight) and 60% in BRICS+ currencies. It would be delivered via a digital platform using transparent blockchain technology.

This combination of a stable asset with a set of diversified currencies reduces exposure to financial volatility and the targeting of single currencies by speculators, while building trust between UNIT users.

The growing weight of BRICS+

The development is significant because of the BRICS+ group’s scale and influence.

Formed in September 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China (the original BRIC), the bloc held its first annual summit in June 2009. South Africa joined in December 2010, creating BRICS.

In 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became members, with Indonesia joining in 2025 — hence the BRICS+ label.

Combined, these countries account for about 36% of the world’s territory and 48.5% of its population. Nearly 20 other countries have either formally applied for membership or been invited to participate as “partner countries.”

Driving the expansion is a collective desire for a multipolar international system not centred on Western control. And the bloc’s combined wealth is substantial, pooling 39% of global GDP (PPP), 78.2% of global coal production, 36% of natural gas production and 72% of rare earth mineral reserves.

A new threat to the almighty US dollar?

The UNIT would not be controlled by any single country or nation-based central bank, nor would it function as an everyday currency. According to economist and financial commentator Vince Lanci, it is intended to be:

a basket-backed, collateral-anchored settlement instrument intended specifically for wholesale, cross-border trade in a multipolar financial world.

The strategic logic is to reduce the group’s collective trade dependence on the US dollar, euro or yen. In particular, it would lower exchange costs by removing the need to convert local currencies to and from the US dollar.

It could also increase economic and financial interdependence between BRICS+ members, and potentially dampen economic shockwaves from the US and the West in the event of a recession – such as might occur if the current AI bubble were to burst.

Should the UNIT become an established trade currency, it could challenge the US dollar’s role as the world’s dominant reserve currency. In turn, that could reduce investment in US Treasury securities and other dollar-denominated assets.

More countries – especially from the Global South – would be tempted to join BRICS+ to use this alternative payment system. As a former White House economist put it::

It’d be like a new union of up-and-coming discontents who, on the scale of GDP, now collectively outweigh not only the reigning hegemon, the United States, but the entire G7 weight class put together.

Limits, risks and open questions

The United States is certainly not invulnerable. The US Dollar Index – which measures the dollar’s performance against a basket of other currencies – fell by about 8% in 2025.

In 2024, BRICS+ countries held around 6,143 tonnes of gold, compared with the US’s 8,134 tonnes, while China and India together accumulated an additional 572.5 tonnes between 2019 and 2024.
Even so, the success of the UNIT would depend on BRICS+ establishing a credible go
vernance framework that clearly sets out the rules and practices governing its use.

Some progress has already been made. Work is under way on a common payments system known as BRICS Pay, while the BRICS+ New Development Bank could potentially issue UNITs.

The project would also require strong and sustained backing from all member states to build market confidence.

And it may also require a degree of political sacrifice and fortitude from BRICS+ countries if the US issues higher trade tariffs to UNIT users to counteract its own dollar’s decline.

Time will tell whether the UNIT becomes a functioning feature of the global financial system, or remains, as with that R5 banknote, more a symbol of ambition.