BRICS is an intergovernmental organization whose name originated as an acronym coined by British economist Jim O'Neill in 2001 to describe major emerging market economies, building on ideas Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov had floated in 1998. Brazil, Russia, India and China held the bloc's first summit in Yekaterinburg on June 16, 2009; South Africa joined the following year to complete the BRICS name, and Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined in 2024 with Indonesia following in early 2025, while Saudi Arabia's invited membership remains unresolved. The organization has no permanent headquarters or secretariat, rotates its presidency annually among members, and its members together account for more than a quarter of global GDP and nearly half the world's population.
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