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Syria is negotiating to join BRICS, according to Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to Russia. “We are very interested in joining BRICS and Syria is in serious negotiations to join.” he said at the “North Caucasus: New Geostrategic Opportunities” event held last week in Pyatigorsk.
The annual BRICS Heads of State meeting will be held from in Kazan. The BRICS group has expanded over the past year from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to now include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, all of whom became full members on January 1.
Multiple other countries have also expressed interest in joining.
Syria has undergone prolonged traumatic events over the past decade, with civil war and Western military interference and sanctions decimating its economy. It should be an important regional energy player, with an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 2.5 billion barrels of oil. It has a population of about 25 million and a GDP today of US$11 billion. In 2010, it had a GDP of US$252 billion, illustrating its massive decline. In terms of restructuring, China has been involved while Russia is interested in its energy industry. Investing in Syria’s shattered energy production and rebuilding its economy and infrastructure will be a major task. Syrian reconstruction is estimated to require about US$300 billion in investment. As an aside, that compares with the US$160 billion the EU has provided to support the Ukraine conflict, with the EU now also short of energy supplies. That might not have been the case had it not become geopolitically involved in the Syrian conflict.
The current bilateral trade volume between Russia and Syria is about US$650 million annually. Russian exports to Syria include grains, medicines, and raw materials, while Syria exports fruits, nuts, salt, sulfur, soil, stone, lime, and cement. In August, the two countries Central Banks stated that they are discussing a transition to settlements in their respective national currencies in bilateral trade.
Syria’s top ten trading partners include BRICS and BRICS-friendly countries such as China, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey meaning that despite Syria’s problems, access to its energy reserves and opportunities in matching that to infrastructure development means its BRICS negotiations and potential membership application may be received favourably.
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