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BRICS Cooperation Progress According to the BTTC Indicator System 2025/2026
The world experienced another turbulent year in 2025. It may well go down in future history textbooks as an inflection point in the evolution of the international order. The West, which for centuries has been universally seen as the mainstay of the global order, has shown increasing signs of implosion. It is being afflicted by profound internal contradictions and conflicts, which seriously degrade its capacity to contribute to global governance, security, and development. At the same time, the countries of the global majority, whose collective potential has grown enormously in recent decades, are no longer willing to accept the West‘s primacy.
The crisis of the West, coupled with the rise of the non-West, is creating a situation that is simultaneously promising and fraught. Its promise lies in the possibility that a world without overbearing Western domination will be a more just and secure place. However, the transition to such a better world could be quite precarious. One risk is that the West’s loss of dominance will cause it to act more aggressively and violently. Unfortunately, the year 2025 and the first days of 2026 provided ample evidence of that. In a flagrant violation of international law, Israel and the United States bombed Iran. The United States carried out missile strikes on targets inside Nigeria, claiming the action was taken to “protect Christians.” The US armed forces attacked Venezuela, killing 83 Venezuelans and Cubans, and abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Whether by coincidence or not, all three nations are closely linked to BRICS. Iran is a BRICS member. Nigeria is a BRICS partner country. Venezuela maintains close collaboration with Russia and China, two of the BRICS founding members.
The US president verbally attacked BRICS as an institution, threatening to impose punitive tariffs on BRICS countries merely for the fact they are members of the group. In another instance of Western hostility toward BRICS, Washington pressured the government of South Africa to eject Iran from the Will for Peace 2026 naval exercise, which was the first multilateral military event conducted under the aegis of BRICS.
Similar to those of the United States, Europe‘s policies have become increasingly militarized and war-prone. Seeking a way out of Europe’s multiple internal crises, several European leaders have resorted to the time-tested method of constructing an external enemy. Russia was conveniently designated as Europe‘s “existential threat.” Continental European countries and the United Kingdom have been escalating both their belligerent rhetoric and hostile actions toward Russia, using the conflict in Ukraine as a justification. One effect of such behavior is the remarkable erosion of Europe’s much-vaunted authority as a pillar of the global normative order.
Washington and Brussels used to promote the liberal international order, a.k.a. a “rulesbased order.” That kind of order, if it ever existed, now lies in ruins. Prominent Western officials nowadays tout a world that is governed by strength, force, and naked power. The most powerful man in the West, the US chief executive, proclaims he has no need for international law. While paying lip service to the notion of national sovereignty, US policy documents leave no doubt that America must be the world’s dominant power.
BRICS is not an anti-Western alliance. Indeed, its member states have a major stake in the West‘s prosperity and stability. However, the West’s crisis and its resultant erratic behavior make BRICS ever more indispensable. This is evidenced by the growing eagerness of various countries to join the group. In 2025, Indonesia was admitted as a full member, while Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam joined as BRICS partner countries. It is telling that the Kingdom of Thailand, having secured partner status, now actively seeks full membership. Should it succeed, Bangkok will become the first US treaty ally to gain BRICS membership. Thailand, which was the only Southeast Asian country to retain independence during the colonial era, has the reputation of a power that tends to make sagacious geopolitical choices, placing its bets on ascendant players.
The unraveling of Western-centric institutions and the unending stream of complex global challenges place an ever-increasing responsibility on BRICS to contribute proactively to global governance and international security. Amid the rising unpredictability and sometimes outright irrationality displayed by Western decision-makers, BRICS has emerged as an anchor of stability, sanity, and sobriety.
Over the period 2015–2025, BRICS countries built up and significantly strengthened their ongoing cooperation on issues concerning international security and global governance, reflecting the increased weight of BRICS and its member countries in global affairs and its transformation into the global majority‘s main institution on global governance issues, as well as the main instrument for reforming global governance in the interests of developing countries.
Supporting and promoting global governance reform in the interests of the global majority has become a core focus of BRICS activity and is expressed in all the association’s summit declarations and other final documents. This commitment is expressed, firstly, in demands for the reform of key international organizations (the UN, WWF, World Bank, WTO, and others), and, secondly, in BRICS’ efforts to create its own development assistance instruments (such as the New BRICS Development Bank), investments (e.g., the BRICS Investment Platform proposed by Russia), payment mechanisms between countries that would not be dependent on the West or the US dollar, as well as instruments for promoting food security (e.g., the Russian initiative on the BRICS Grain Platform), and other instruments independent of the West for promoting normal trade and economic relations.
This is the second edition of the BRICS annual monitoring report produced by the BRICS Expert Council — Russia. Building on the first edition published in November 2024, this new report has expanded in both scope and volume. The methodology and indicator system used in the reports were developed in close collaboration with the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC). The authors of this volume represent top-notch experts from the most reputable academic institutions from all over Russia: HSE University, MGIMO University, Primakov Institute as well as other institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg University, Far Eastern Federal University, Southern Federal University, and others. Although the document is authored by Russian experts, it seeks to present a BRICS-wide perspective. To ensure objectivity, experts from all BRICS countries were consulted for consistency and integrity. It provides an assessment of BRICS‘ accomplishments across its main agenda areas, including global governance reform, conflict resolution and international security, economics, trade and finance, sustainable development, education, science, technology and innovation, and cultural collaboration.
This report is a canvas, rich in detail and data points, depicting the current state of affairs in BRICS. It shows what BRICS has already achieved and, no less importantly, what can be done to advance the group’s agenda. A major focus is to illuminate BRICS‘ potential and to map out possible pathways for cooperation.
The authors hope this report — whether read in its entirety or in selected parts — will prove to be of interest and use to a broad audience, including BRICS decision-makers and practitioners, academics, university students, and journalists. We welcome and will be grateful for readers’ feedback and comments.
