END OF THE DOLLAR: South Africa says over 40 countries want to join BRICS

08/16/2023 / By Arsenio Toledo

Over 40 other countries are looking to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies. If these nations were given the opportunity to be full-fledged members, this could lead to approximately 85 percent of the global population turning away from using the United States dollar as its main foreign currency.

This is according to financial expert and analyst Andy Schectman, who recently spoke with Kitco News to discuss the South African government’s recent revelation that some 40 or so nations are gearing up to submit their formal applications to join BRICS.

Schectman noted that the developing world is creating multinational institutions that are steadily growing in power and influence to the point that they may one day be able to threaten America’s global financial hegemony. Schectman pointed to programs and organizations like the Belt and Road Initiative, the Eurasian Economic Union, BRICS’s own New Development Bank and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

“If you put together the Belt and Road Initiative, the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, you’re d–n near close to 85 percent of the human population,” he said. “What they’re doing is they’re being very methodical in the way that they’re laying the groundwork, the foundation to when they flip the switch.”

“And so whether or not we see a [BRICS] currency in a few weeks or a few months or next year, to me the alliance that’s being built, this alliance that represents the majority of the human population that is not going green [U.S. dollar], it’s a very big deal,” Schectman added. (Related: BRICS bloc’s proposed gold-backed currency could spell an END to the US dollar.)

22 Nations formally applying to become full BRICS members

South Africa’s ambassador to the BRICS bloc, Anil Sooklal, recently informed journalists that 22 nations have formally applied to join the organization.

This announcement comes just days before BRICS is about to hold a summit in South Africa’s main commercial city of Johannesburg, due to take place on Aug. 22 to 24 and without the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Twenty-two countries have formally approached BRICS countries to become full members. There’s an equal number of countries that have been informally asking about becoming BRICS members … [including] all the major global south countries,” said Sooklal.

Some of the countries that have publicly expressed their interest to become full-fledged members of the economic union are Argentina, Bangladesh, Comoros, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Iran, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The growing interest in membership to the BRICS group is “nothing new,” said Sooklal, but it does underline the “confidence” that the world has in the work that BRICS nations have done in “championing” the economies of the developing world since the group’s inception.

“The BRICS are not only the driving force of global strength in trying to change the fault lines in terms of global politics, they are also changing what happens in the global economic space,” said Sooklal. “The current global architecture continues to be unequal, continues to marginalize developing countries … and continues to be dominated by a few hegemonies. We want a world where our voices are heard.”

Sooklal noted that BRICS is now being seen more as “a powerful force,” adding that, measured by purchasing power parity, the bloc now accounts for nearly 32 percent of the global GDP – a level that officially overtakes the G7 group of so-called advanced democracies that includes the United States.

Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher for the Institute for Global Dialogue at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, noted that BRICS’s many achievements make joining the bloc a very attractive prospect.

“You will recall that from the onset BRICS was an outfit that was easily dismissed by many, particularly in the West, seen merely as some concept,” said Kubayi. “But it has achieved a lot, you know, in the 15 years that it’s been around.”

Kubayi’s examples include the creation of the New Development Bank and its programs and policies for looking at alternative ways of conducting trade and promoting the use of local currencies.

Learn more about the coming end of the U.S. dollar at DollarDemise.com.

Watch this clip from Kitco News as financial expert Andy Schectman discusses the possibility that 85 percent of the global population could dump the U.S. dollar.

This video is from the Thrive Time Show channel on Brighteon.com.