Algeria will most likely join the group of countries that make up the BRICS. With what objectives?
“Algeria is interested in the BRICS, in that they constitute an economic and political power. It was in the middle of summer that the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, announced Algeria’s desire to join the BRICS group, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
This last country, less rich than the others – its gross domestic product (GDP) is less than 500 billion dollars a year – has been integrated into the BRICS as representative of the African continent, a privilege which other countries have not benefited from. whose economy is more efficient, such as Turkey, Mexico or South Korea.
The emerging powers that made up the group at the start have made strong progress in the world economy: while these countries represented 16% of the world’s gross domestic product twenty years ago, this figure could rise to 40% by 2025.
As if to answer questions about Algeria’s real capacities to join this club, the Algerian head of state affirmed that joining the BRICS was “dependent on economic conditions which Algeria largely satisfies”.
He returned to the charge on September 24, during a meeting with the walis (prefects) gathered in Algiers, specifying that among the objectives of his government was “the development of the national income in a way that allow you to join the BRICS group” .
An African axis
In June, the Algerian president took part in a BRICS summit by videoconference with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sissi as representatives of “observer” countries, the only two to benefit from this advantage.
According to several sources, Algeria would not be the only African country to soon join this conglomerate of emerging powers.
Vladimir Putin, here at the last BRICS summit organized by videoconference on June 23, 2022, would “not be opposed”, in the words of his ambassador in Algiers, to Algeria’s entry into the BRICS (AFP / Mikhail Metzel )
“The current members of the BRICS want to create an African axis which will be won over to their cause: Algiers-Abuja-Pretoria”, predicts to Middle East Eye Smain Lalmas, Algerian economic expert and consultant, who believes that on a purely economic level, ” Algeria has nothing to gain” because its “economy is not diversified” and that it “is, geographically, far from the other countries” composing this group.
For Ali Harbi, consultant in sustainable development and governance strategy, approached by MEE, Egypt could join them, so that these “four countries [Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt] constitute a heavyweight of development integrated economy.
But this group of countries has in reality, according to him, nothing “of a formal and structured organization of economic development such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]”.
The Algerian economy is also far from equaling that of certain countries such as Brazil to justify joining the BRICS.
With a GDP of $193 billion by the end of the current year, it is only the fourth African economic power behind Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa.
Ali Harbi believes that the BRICS embody more “a reaction” to the reality of the balance of power in the world. And he’s not the only one to think so.
“These countries have the ability to challenge the order established by the political and economic domination of the United States, which is achieved in particular through financial instruments such as the dollar and the mechanisms of international debt”, explains Ali Harbi. .
For him, the BRICS are “an opportune framework for emerging countries with a view to moving towards a better balance of international forces and a multipolarity aimed, for example, at encouraging non-dollar and non-euro monetary exchanges and encouraging trade between countries in developing”.
Smaïn Lalmas explains to MEE that by knocking on the door of the BRICS, Algeria is trying to position itself. “Algeria has already signed an association agreement with the European Union, established another association framework with the countries of the Arab Free Trade Area [ GZALE ] and African countries. But that didn’t work. It is now seeking to weigh in by joining the BRICS.”
He also believes that the possible integration of Algeria within the BRICS responds to a desire of the great powers of this group, namely Russia, China and India, to push for the creation of a multipolar world.
A currency competing with the dollar?
“For Algeria, this would be a very clear position in favor of a new world economic order based more on trade between developing countries and supported by powers such as China, India and Russia, as opposed to an order dominated by the United States and Europe ”, supports Ali Harbi.
The speech given in June by Abdelmadjid Tebboune corroborates this hypothesis.
What would Algeria gain from this new alliance? For Ali Harbi, “significant development opportunities will be built in particular through South-South cooperation, supported by the financial power of countries like India and China”.
“The tensions and upheavals that shake international relations today challenge us all, not only in view of the current challenges to efforts aimed at achieving peace – ending conflicts and moving the wheel of development – , but also for the dangers of polarization which augur a change in the balance of power on the international scene and presage the contours of the new world order”, indicated the Head of State in front of his counterparts from the BRICS and Egypt.
Since early September, the main countries making up this group have been showing their support for Algeria’s possible membership.
Bilateral meetings were held between Algerian and Brazilian representatives to sign a defense agreement at the end of August, then the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs met his Chinese counterpart in New York, who showed his country’s support for an entry of Algeria within the BRICS.
The Russian ambassador to Algeria also said that Moscow “does not oppose” Algeria’s desire to join the group. Abdelmadjid Tebboune must also go to Russia before the end of the year.
What would Algeria gain from this new alliance? For Ali Harbi, “significant development opportunities will be built, in particular, through South-South cooperation, supported by the financial power of countries like India and China”.
According to him, it will be necessary “to take into account the possibility that the BRICS launch a currency competing with the dollar, including through the evolution of the Chinese currency”.
The only downside: the risk, according to Smaïn Lalmas, of “geographical distance” between Algeria and the major economic powers that make up this group.
Moreover, “the Algerian economy is still weak enough” to take advantage of this new axis. It produces almost nothing apart from hydrocarbons, which, according to him, exposes it to the same shortcomings as after the association agreement with the European Union: it will become in the best of cases a large market for products Chinese or others.
Added to this is the war in Ukraine. “In absolute terms, integrating the BRICS is a good thing. But Algeria chose the wrong timing since a founding member of the group, namely Russia, is at war,” he objects. Because, according to him, if Moscow loses the war, he will take all the other members with it.
