Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are toying with joining the alliance of five emerging countries. A turn away from the West? Not necessarily, as a look at the Arab perspective shows.
More and more countries in the Middle East are flirting with the Brics group. The alliance, consisting of the emerging countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, recently decided at the summit in Johannesburg to invite friendly countries as “full members”: Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina . Brics could become Brics+ from January 2024. While the regime in Tehran, which is under Western sanctions, hopes to emerge from its international isolation, its Gulf neighbors are pursuing their own strategy.