BRICS Expansion 2024–2026: Which Countries Joined, What It Means for US Dollar Dominance

BRICS expansion between 2024 and 2026 brought six new countries into full membership (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia), added ten partner countries to a structured on-ramp track, and pushed the bloc’s collective share of global GDP at purchasing power parity to approximately 36 to 41 percent of the world economy while representing roughly half of global population, raising concrete questions about the US dollar’s role in trade settlement, reserve management, and commodity pricing for the first time since the Bretton Woods era. This article covers the complete BRICS membership as of 2026, the significance of each new entrant, the partner country framework, the de-dollarisation mechanisms BRICS has built, and what the evidence actually shows about the dollar’s position. Universalnest.com covers this within its Global Politics and Governance reporting across Current Affairs.

BRICS Membership in 2026: 11 Full Members and 10 Partner Countries

BRICS comprises 11 full members in 2026, following the largest single expansion in the bloc’s history on January 1, 2024, when five countries simultaneously became full members, and a further expansion on January 6, 2025, when Indonesia became the first Southeast Asian nation to join.

The 2024 Kazan Summit in Russia introduced a second tier of engagement: the partner country framework. This track allows countries to participate in BRICS summits and working groups without full membership obligations, creating a structured on-ramp designed to absorb the more than 30 countries that have submitted formal membership applications without forcing immediate accession decisions.

Member	Status	Joined
Brazil	Full member	2009 (founder)
Russia	Full member	2009 (founder)
India	Full member	2009 (founder)
China	Full member	2009 (founder)
South Africa	Full member	2010
Egypt	Full member	January 1, 2024
Ethiopia	Full member	January 1, 2024
Iran	Full member	January 1, 2024
United Arab Emirates	Full member	January 1, 2024
Saudi Arabia	Full member	January 1, 2024 (formal: July 2025)
Indonesia	Full member	January 6, 2025
Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam	Partner countries	2025-2026

Five New BRICS Full Members in 2024: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, and Saudi Arabia

BRICS admitted five new full members on January 1, 2024, in the largest single-year expansion since the bloc’s founding, with each entrant selected for a combination of regional influence, resource endowment, and strategic positioning relative to global trade and finance systems.

Egypt (joined BRICS January 1, 2024) 

Egypt is Africa’s most populous Arab nation with a population of approximately 106 million. Its defining strategic asset is the Suez Canal, through which approximately 12 to 15 percent of global trade passes. Egypt’s entry gives BRICS a physical institutional presence on one of the world’s two most critical maritime trade corridors. Its economy of approximately $400 billion is smaller than Saudi Arabia’s or Iran’s in resource terms, but its role as a bridge to the African Union (whose headquarters is in Addis Ababa, a fellow 2024 BRICS member’s capital) carries political weight beyond GDP figures.

Ethiopia (joined BRICS January 1, 2024) 

Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most-populous country with approximately 130 million people and has been the continent’s fastest-growing large economy over the past decade. The African Union headquarters is located in Addis Ababa, giving BRICS a direct institutional connection to the 55-member AU at a moment when African representation in global institutions is a stated BRICS priority.

Iran (joined BRICS January 1, 2024) 

Iran is among the world’s top ten oil producers and has operated under comprehensive US sanctions since 2018. Iran’s entry into BRICS is the clearest signal that the bloc intends to provide an alternative economic framework that sanctions-exposed countries can trade within. Any BRICS settlement mechanism that allows Iran to transact outside dollar-based systems directly reduces the economic pressure of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

United Arab Emirates (joined BRICS January 1, 2024) 

The UAE is a global trade and financial services hub, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi serving as the primary Gulf financial centres. Abu Dhabi holds one of the world’s two largest sovereign wealth fund pools, now inside a BRICS member state. The UAE’s currency remains pegged to the US dollar, making its BRICS membership one of the clearest examples of a country participating in both the existing dollar system and the emerging BRICS framework simultaneously.

Saudi Arabia (joined BRICS January 1, 2024; formally confirmed July 2025) 

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and has been the anchor of the petrodollar system since the 1974 agreement that established dollar-denominated oil pricing globally. Saudi Arabia’s BRICS membership is the most significant structural signal in the entire expansion from the perspective of dollar dominance. Saudi Arabia still prices its oil in US dollars. The petrodollar arrangement informally continues. However, the world’s largest oil exporter now sits inside a bloc that is explicitly building settlement mechanisms designed to reduce dollar dependency, creating a structural tension that will resolve over years rather than days.

BRICS Adds Indonesia in 2025 and Formalises a Partner Country Track for 50+ Applicants

BRICS formally admitted Indonesia as its eleventh full member on January 6, 2025, making Indonesia the first Southeast Asian nation in the bloc, with a population of approximately 280 million (the world’s fourth largest), a $1.4 trillion G20 economy, and major export positions in palm oil, nickel, and coal.

Indonesia’s entry followed a period of active BRICS engagement since 2023. Its membership expands BRICS into Southeast Asia for the first time and brings one of the most significant non-aligned economies into formal association with the bloc’s trade and finance initiatives.

The partner country framework formalised at the Kazan 2024 summit introduced a structured alternative to full membership. Nine countries were announced as partners in December 2024: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. Brazil subsequently announced Vietnam as the tenth partner country in early 2026. Partner status allows attendance at BRICS summits and working group participation without the full political exposure of membership, a design that accommodates countries managing relationships with both BRICS and Western-aligned institutions simultaneously.

India holds the BRICS chairship in 2026. Prime Minister Modi stated at the 17th BRICS Summit that “India would give a new form to the BRICS grouping during its presidency in 2026.” India’s chairship priorities include pushing interoperability in cross-border digital payments, including CBDC-linked and platform-based settlement frameworks. The 2026 BRICS Summit is hosted by Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, with South Africa actively lobbying for Nigeria and Angola as the next full members, citing African representation as a BRICS strategic priority.

BRICS De-Dollarisation in Practice: NDB, mBridge, BRICS Pay, and 65% Local Currency Trade

BRICS has built or proposed five specific mechanisms for reducing dollar dependency in trade and finance since 2016, the most advanced of which are the New Development Bank and the mBridge CBDC-linked settlement platform.

• New Development Bank (NDB): Founded in 2016 by BRICS; as of December 31, 2024, the NDB had approved $39 billion across 120 projects spanning energy, transport, water, and climate-linked infrastructure. Thirty percent of NDB financing is now conducted in local currencies. The NDB operates as a parallel multilateral development lender alongside the World Bank and IMF, and has expanded its lending base to include partner country applicants.
• mBridge: The most technically advanced de-dollarisation mechanism in operation. mBridge is a CBDC-linked cross-border settlement platform that allows two central banks to settle payments in their own central bank digital currencies in seconds, without routing through a dollar correspondent account. The Bank for International Settlements publicly withdrew from mBridge in 2024, citing concerns about “the political optics of supporting an explicitly de-dollarisation platform.” Participating central banks continued development independently. By late 2025, mBridge had cleared over $1 billion in pilot transactions, most of them oil and commodity payments between Gulf and Asian counterparties.
• Trans-Border Payment Initiative: Launched at the Kazan 2024 summit; facilitates cross-border transactions without SWIFT routing.
• BRICS Pay: A digital payment platform piloting in multiple member states; designed for retail and commercial cross-border payments in local currencies.
• BRICS Grain Exchange: A proposed commodity trading platform for agricultural goods priced and settled in local currencies; not yet operational.

Local currency trade data provides the clearest indication of where BRICS de-dollarisation currently stands in practice. Approximately 65% of intra-BRICS trade now uses local currencies rather than dollars. Russia reports that 90% of its 2024 BRICS trade was settled in national currencies, a figure driven by the sanctions-imposed necessity of non-dollar settlement since 2022.

Mechanism	Status	Key Metric
New Development Bank (NDB)	Active since 2016	$39B approved; 30% local currency financing
mBridge (CBDC settlement)	Pilot; $1B+ cleared	Gulf-Asia oil corridor; BIS withdrew
Trans-Border Payment Initiative	Launched Kazan 2024	SWIFT-independent cross-border settlement
BRICS Pay	Piloting	Multiple member states; local currency retail
BRICS Grain Exchange	Proposed	Local currency commodity trading

BRICS Expansion and US Dollar Dominance: What the Evidence Shows and Where the Limits Are

BRICS expansion between 2024 and 2026 has accelerated the structural conditions for US dollar decline without producing an alternative reserve currency, with IMF data showing the dollar’s share of global foreign exchange reserves declining from 71% in 2000 to approximately 58% in 2024, a 13 percentage point decline over 24 years that predates BRICS expansion but is reinforced by the bloc’s growth.

The decline is real, and the direction is established. The dollar held 71% of global FX reserves in 2000. By 2024, that figure had fallen to approximately 58%. BRICS expansion has not caused this decline; it has added structural conditions that make further decline more likely over time.

A BRICS single currency does not exist and is not imminent. India formally opposed it at multiple summits. The analytical consensus is that member states have incompatible monetary regimes, different inflation environments, and different political objectives; the same structural obstacles that prevent any large multi-country monetary union from forming without decades of institutional groundwork.

The petrodollar arrangement informally continues. Saudi Arabia joined BRICS and still prices its oil in dollars. The 1974 petrodollar agreement that made dollar-denominated oil pricing the global standard has not been formally abandoned. It is under structural pressure for the first time in decades, but that pressure has not yet produced a change in oil pricing currency.

For most BRICS applicants, the strategic goal is settlement resilience rather than dollar destruction. Countries facing sanctions risk, banking system friction, or FX volatility want the ability to transact outside dollar-based correspondent banking when needed, not the elimination of dollar trade globally. mBridge cleared $1 billion in pilot transactions as proof of concept for this resilience goal. Global oil trade runs at approximately $2 trillion annually; the scale gap is large, but the infrastructure exists and is developing.

BRICS members Russia and China project their collective influence beyond trade and finance into global governance, where their BRICS partnership is reinforced by their joint use of UN Security Council veto power. For the full record of how Russia and China have used that veto authority, Universalnest’s analysis of the Security Council deadlock covers their blocking actions on Gaza, Sudan, and Myanmar.

BRICS in 2026: Larger, More Resource-Rich, and Building Dollar Alternatives at Pilot Scale

BRICS expansion between 2024 and 2026 produced a bloc of 11 full members covering roughly half of the global population and 36 to 41% of world GDP, with four of the world’s ten largest oil producers inside and two of the world’s three largest sovereign wealth fund pools at the table. The de-dollarisation mechanisms it has built, from the NDB’s $39 billion in local currency financing to mBridge’s $1 billion in CBDC-linked pilots, are real but operating at a fraction of global trade scale. The dollar’s share of global FX reserves declined from 71% in 2000 to 58% in 2024 without BRICS producing an alternative reserve currency. The question is speed, not direction. Universalnest.com tracks this and every major shift in the global economic and political order within its Global Politics and Governance coverage across Current Affairs.

Frequently Asked Questions 

How many countries are in BRICS in 2026?

BRICS has 11 full members in 2026: the original five (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), five who joined January 1, 2024 (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia), and Indonesia, which joined January 6, 2025. It also has 10 partner countries, including Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

When did Saudi Arabia officially join BRICS?

Saudi Arabia became a de facto BRICS participant from January 1, 2024, alongside Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE. Saudi Arabia was formally confirmed as a full BRICS member in July 2025. It is the world’s largest oil exporter and the anchor of the petrodollar system that has denominated global oil trade in US dollars since 1974.

Is BRICS creating its own currency to replace the US dollar?

No. A BRICS single currency has been discussed but not agreed upon. India formally opposed it at multiple summits. No timeline exists, and the analytical consensus is that member states have incompatible monetary regimes that make a shared currency structurally impractical in the near term. BRICS is building settlement mechanisms and expanding local currency trade instead.

What is mBridge and how does it challenge the dollar?

mBridge is a CBDC-linked cross-border settlement platform that lets central banks settle payments in their own digital currencies without using dollar correspondent accounts. It cleared over $1 billion in pilot transactions by late 2025, mainly in Gulf-Asia oil and commodity payments. The Bank for International Settlements withdrew from the project in 2024, citing political concerns.

What percentage of global GDP and population does BRICS represent?

BRICS represents approximately 36 to 41% of global GDP measured at purchasing power parity and roughly half of the global population in 2026. Four of the world’s ten largest oil producers are now BRICS members, and two of the world’s three largest sovereign wealth fund pools (Abu Dhabi and Riyadh) sit inside the bloc.

Why did Indonesia join BRICS in January 2025?

Indonesia became BRICS’s first Southeast Asian full member on January 6, 2025. With approximately 280 million people, a $1.4 trillion G20 economy, and major commodity export positions in palm oil, nickel, and coal, Indonesia joined to diversify its trade and financing relationships, reduce dollar dependency in specific transaction corridors, and access NDB infrastructure financing.