The original acronym BRIC, Brazil, Russia, India, China, was coined by Jim O’Neill, a Goldman Sachs man, in 2001.
It then became BRICS, because South Africa joined, and now we don’t know what they’re gonna call themselves since several more countries have just joined, or will join in the near future.
I see a lot of similarities between BRICS and the EU and I thought the best way to go about it is to simply list them as I see them.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
SIMILARITIES
1. BRICS started out as an economic and trade agreement, exactly like the EU, and it is now evolving into some sort of geopolitical alliance
2. BRICS included a handful of countries, it is now including many.
3. There is one de-facto leader
The European Union can trace its roots back to the Treaty of Paris of 1951.
France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands established the so-called ECSC, The European Coal and Steel Community.
Then there were two key treaties, the Treaty of Rome in 1958 and the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993.
This follows the same trajectory as the evolution of BRICS. And the EU, just like BRICS, started out with a handful countries, and it now includes 27.
As things stand, BRICS include nine members, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Iran, the UAE, Egypt, South Africa and Ethiopia. But 22 more countries have applied for membership.
Just like the EU, all members of BRICS are supposed to be equal, but that it is clearly not the case. Russia is trying to lead the pack and find more allies now that it has severed ties with the Western World.
But, everyone knows that China is the de-facto leader.
Because it is the second largest country by population and land mass but the most powerful financially, and the most powerful geopolitically.
Germany, until not long ago, used to have the same role in the EU.
It no longer has it, because, at the moment, EU countries have stopped pretending they dislike each other.
Which brings us on the same mistake BRICS are making.
An alliance of countries that despise each other
Countries in the European Union despise each other. This has always been true, but it has now become evident.
It has become particularly evident with the war, with countries that don’t care at all, countries that more or less openly pro Russia and countries that more or less openly anti Russia.
Not a day goes by without country A pointing fingers at country B and vice versa.
BRICS are making the same mistake.
India and China, the two largest countries in the ‘alliance’, have daily border disputes. And China has border disputes with Russia as well, for Siberia.
And Brazil is in the BRICS, so what’s gonna happen when Argentina joins? Argentina and Brazil, lest we forget, aren’t really on good terms.
The European Union tried to squash century long disagreements with the economy, but that doesn’t work. Sooner or later, countries within BRICS will start fighting each other as well.
It won’t happen in the near future, but it will happen.
I won’t be here to see it, but 100 years from now, I’d very surprised if the UE still existed, and I’d be very surprised if BRICS countries still got along. And perhaps 200 years from now, BRICS is gonna be the new UE, a disorganised group of countries
bitcoinea 
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