BRICS not breaking: Ex-foreign secretary slams Trump's 'everyone dropping out' statement

Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal on Wednesday responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's claims about BRICS, clarifying that no country has dropped out of the group.

Trump's statement, made earlier on Tuesday, suggested that nations were abandoning the BRICS grouping due to his tariffs. "I told anybody who wants to be in BRICS, that's fine, but we're going to put tariffs on your nation. Everybody dropped out. They're all dropping out of BRICS. BRICS was an attack on the dollar and I said, you want to play that game, I'm going to put tariffs on all of your products coming into the US," Trump had said.

Sibal's response firmly rejected the assertion, stating, "No one has dropped out. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE are members of BRICS. No one has dropped out."

He also pointed out the addition of new partners to BRICS, saying, "BRICS has nine partner countries: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. This category was created in 2024."

The former foreign secretary further commented on the broader economic implications of Trump's tariff policies, highlighting that the overuse of tariffs as a weapon could lead to a devaluation of its effectiveness over time. "The more Trump uses the tariff weapon arbitrarily as an all-purpose one, the more it will get devalued over time," Sibal noted.

Sibal also touched upon the global power dynamics, stating that while the U.S. would continue to be a major global player, its hegemonic ambitions would increasingly be contested by other countries. He remarked, "US will remain a powerful actor but its hegemonic ambitions will be contested," adding that China, as a member of BRICS, was already challenging the U.S.

The remarks came after Trump's comments, in which he suggested that other countries had distanced themselves from BRICS due to his tariffs and the group's opposition to the U.S. dollar.