The 2022 summit between leaders of China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa (BRICS) starts tomorrow, Thursday. In a speech preceding the virtual gathering, the host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, warned against "expanding" military ties. Meanwhile, only one BRICS country is critical of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while some of the others have increased oil purchases from Moscow.
Originally, the term BRICS was coined in the 2001 Goldman Sachs report "Building Better Global Economic BRICs" report which predicted that Brazil, Russia, India and China were "set to grow more" than the G7 in terms of GDP. The four countries created a loose economic alliance and the first "BRIC" meeting was held in Yekaterinburg in 2009.
