Jim O'Neill, the economist who coined the term BRICS, is raising doubts about the bloc's ability to challenge the West. In an interview with Al Jazeera, O'Neill discussed the BRICS economy, the India-China trade relationship, and the bloc's expansion. He argued that Donald Trump has made BRICS politically relevant again, and that the bloc's expansion is driven by geopolitical motivations, such as China's push for a platform to champion the Global South. However, O'Neill also noted that the BRICS economy still lacks a coherent shared strategy, and that BRICS challenging the West in any meaningful structural sense will require more than just a longer membership list. He also discussed the limits of BRICS pay as a practical alternative to the dollar, and the challenges of de-dollarization. Overall, O'Neill's take was blunt: the US may be doing more to accelerate its own decline than BRICS ever could.
