In the MUN's most recent conference held by chairs Anabella and Lucrezia delegations discussed the expansion of BRICS. The delegations of Ethiopia, Egypt, Brazil, Russia, the US, Turkey, the EU, and China were present to decide whether the countries of BRICS should expand economic alliances to other countries or not. During the conference, many controversial comments were made by representatives of the countries who stood in various stances.
Ethiopia brought many important and relevant points to the discussion, for example, a comparison of BRICS to NATO, which has more than 30 members—causing reflection on why the organization shouldn’t grow either. However, the country ended up losing its argument by taking its relationship with NATO personally, belittling the organization by calling it a group of "mean girls". This comparison was made in an attempt to criticize the countries that are part of NATO, especially Westerners, as the delegation justified itself by saying that the organization is mostly focused on Western countries, excluding African and Asian countries, and the Global South overall. The hypocrisy of this argument is glaring when the group is composed of Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Comments that exude jealousy, especially against the US didn't just come from Ethiopia: China made a statement that said everyone should join BRICS, while maliciously excluding the United States from that statement.. In rebuttal, the US highlighted that these criticisms about itself and NATO, made up of first-world countries and a very successful global organization, within a discussion about a different organization formed by several still developing countries, only display the desire and envy BRICS has for power they do not possess.
Throughout the committee session, countries like Brazil were always on the fence. The delegation was always in favor of BRICS expansion, however, it was clear that the selection of which countries should be included or not would have to be very rigorous. Therefore, expansion is not an easy topic and a complex thing to solve. There are many variables, many different opinions, and strong positive and negative feelings regarding the distribution of power between developing and developed countries. Besides, it is necessary to think about all the consequences: how many countries should join, what would be the criteria, and most of all who deserves to join?
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