BRICS on right track to the future

The 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Wednesday to Friday will once again highlight the rising power of large emerging economies in the world economy.

When the first BRICS summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009 after the global financial crisis, the combined economic power of the original four member countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - amounted to some $10 trillion, or about a third of the combined total of the largest economies of the West - the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy - and Japan, the six major economies.

Today, BRICS is coping with a fragile global recovery that is overshadowed by the US' new unilateral and protectionist policies.