Bangladesh participated in the recently concluded BRICS summit in the Russia city of Kazan with the hope of expanding its role in this intergovernmental bloc in the years to come. But this time Dhaka did not make any visible efforts to become a permanent member of the group though there were talks of Bangladesh's inclusion during last year's BRICS summit in Johannesburg.
However, Bangladesh was assured of playing a greater role in the group by Russia during BRICS future expansion. This assurance came when Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin held a meeting with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey A Ryabkov on the sidelines of the summit.
Although Bangladesh's inclusion remains uncertain, BRICS has expanded by leaps and bounds. And the last week's Kazan summit that was attended by prominent figures like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi marked the first gathering after the expansion of the group with new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates alongside the original five members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
In the wake of growing multilateralism and a multipolar world for a sustained and rules-based global order, Bangladesh looks forward to contributing to BRICS in promoting international trading system and amplifying the voices of Global South on reforms of international financial institutions, migrants' rights, climate justice and debt sustainability.
In order for building dominance and reshaping global governance into a multipolar world order, BRICS is emerging as an important grouping of some powerful countries. This is why, more than 40 countries have already expressed interest in joining BRICS, of them 23 have formally applied to join the bloc, which together account for about a quarter of the global economy and 41.9% of the world's population.
Bangladesh has also applied to join the BRICS but seemingly adopted a go-slow strategy at the moment because of changed political scenario created after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5 as the bloc is considered a counterweight to Western hegemony.
Although Bangladesh is not a member of BRICS, it has been part of the club with its presence in the group's 'New Development Bank (NDB) since 2021. As a result, Dhaka could greatly benefit from the financing of the multilateral development bank to implement its various economic projects.
Accordingly, Bangladesh has been trying to take maximum advantage from the NDB. Recently, the cabinet approved a draft of the 'New Development Bank 2023' to welcome funds from the NDB and the government expected at least $800 million from the bank to fund some projects.
In coming years, Bangladesh has the opportunities to receive funding from the Shanghai- based NDB to execute different projects in a broad range of sectors like transport, water and sanitation, clean energy and digital and social infrastructure.
We are hopeful that sometime Bangladesh as a fast growing economy will be joining the BRICS as the group keeps expanding.
