BRICS Development Bank accepted Colombia’s entry
Photo: Fotografía oficial de la Presidencia de Colombia.
According to an article from the outlet El Espectador, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Laura Sarabia, confirmed that the BRICS Development Bank accepted the entry of the Latin American country into this financing organization.
The Latin American nation requested its entry into said financing body in May of the current year 2025, the same month in which the China-CELAC Forum was held, where Colombia signed the Cooperation Plan for the Belt and Road Initiative, an event which generated tensions with the United States.
It is worth mentioning that Colombia’s entry into the BRICS Development Bank does not imply that the Latin American country has become a member of the economic bloc made up of China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Russia.
Nevertheless, with its entry, it will be able to access lines of credit and various financing options for the execution of projects in any sector of the economy. This new relationship resembles bilateral cooperation with banking institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank.
It is known that, due to recent tariff policies imposed by the United States on several countries in the international arena, the Colombian government, led by President Gustavo Petro, has chosen to diversify and expand its relations with financing entities.
It is important to highlight that, for the moment, the tariffs imposed by the government of Donald Trump are currently paused, as the North American country decided to implement a 90-day recess of said measures. However, this period will end in July of the current year 2025.
Specifically regarding Colombia, these tariff measures imposed an additional 10 percent charge on all exports whose final destination was the United States. Only energy and mining goods were exempt from this policy.
Returning to the topic of Colombia’s entry into the BRICS Development Bank, the Representative to the House for the department of Antioquia and President of the Second Commission on Foreign Relations commented that joining this financing organization is “a historic step towards a new global financial architecture.”
On the other hand, it is appropriate to point out that BRICS is a multilateral organization that was established through the cooperation of several nations with key emerging economies in the international arena, such as the aforementioned Russia, India, South Africa, China and Brazil.
A common characteristic of the member countries of this group is that they possess a high abundance of natural resources, a high rate of economic acceleration in recent decades, and a significantly large population.
The BRICS nations came together to create an entity and a space different from the G7, which, with the economies of the nations that compose it, namely the United States, Germany, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy, represents 37 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Recently, on January 7 of the current year 2025, Indonesia joined BRICS as a new permanent member. Additionally, in 2024, the group extended official invitations for membership to Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.
Likewise, it is worth mentioning that currently Bolivia, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Belarus, Uganda, Cuba and Thailand are listed as associate nations of the group founded by Brazil, China, Russia and India.
Last but not least, it is important to emphasize that the purpose of the BRICS group is to develop economic and commercial cooperation among its member nations, as well as to reduce the use of the United States dollar in these transactions.
* Original text in Spanish. Translated by Large Language Model (LLM) technology.
Main Source:
Gobierno confirma que Colombia fue aceptada en el banco de desarrollo de los BRICS – El Espectador
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