The BRICS - Trade Grouping; Anti-West Alliance; Or What?

Last year Russia hosted the sixteenth intergovernmental meeting of the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE became new members. But the BRICS remains an informal grouping, with no founding treaty, no secretariat or headquarters. In 2024 Russia organised the summit and set the agenda.

What are the main priorities of the BRICS? How do they co-ordinate their activities? Can they present a united front against Trump’s tariffs? Is there a dominant power: Russia or China? These are some of the questions to be explored by our expert panel.

Meet the speakers

Dame Deborah Bronnert DCMG is Director General Europe at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). She was the British Ambassador to the Russian Federation from January 2020 to November 2023. Among other posts in her distinguished civil service career, she was Ambassador to Zimbabwe from 2011 to 2014. She is a graduate of UCL’s School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. 

Dr Christopher Sabatini is a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House. Prior to that, he was a lecturer in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a lecturer of practice at London School of Economics and Political Science’s School of Public Policy. He has also served as senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, as the founder and editor-in-chief of the policy magazine Americas Quarterly (AQ), and as director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy. 

Avantika Chilkoti is a global business writer at The Economist. She previously served as international correspondent focusing on development and aid. She is also the host of “The Modi Raj” a podcast about Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi. Before joining The Economist, she covered finance for The Wall Street Journal and was a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times based in Mumbai and Jakarta. 

This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted when the recording is uploaded.

Accessibility

• The corridor outside the lecture theatre(s) is sufficiently wide enough (150cm+) to allow wheelchair users to pass.
• There is step free access into the lecture theatre(s).
• The door opening width(s) is/are 75cm+ for the lecture theatre(s).
• There are designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre(s), located at the back.
• There is level access to the designated seating from an entrance.
• There is space for an assistance dog.
• There is a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre(s).
• There is not a visual fire alarm beacon in the lecture theatre(s).

For more accessiblity info and an access guide please visit Accessable