Changing world order: Will BRICS+ become the engine of a new global economic system?

Topic

In July 2025, Brazil is organising the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro - for the first time in an expanded formation as BRICS+. With new members such as Egypt, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, the alliance is gaining strategic breadth. The central question is: Can BRICS+ become the platform for a multipolar world order - and how far does China's claim to leadership extend? 

As an economic heavyweight and political pacesetter, China is increasingly shaping the BRICS+ agenda: be it in promoting decoupling from the US dollar, expanding alternative financial institutions or positioning itself in the global South. But how stable is this alliance - and how dominant is China really? 

In this edition of the Global China Conversations, we ask whether BRICS+, with China's active role, can become the engine of a new global economic system or whether economic imbalances and political differences within the alliance are thwarting its ambitions. 

Program

The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.  

The Global China Conversation #42 will be held in German.

Samina Sultan 

Dr Samina Sultan has been Senior Economist for European Economic Policy and Foreign Trade at the German Economic Institute since August 2022. Prior to that, she was on the scientific staff of the German Council of Economic Experts (the so-called ‘Wirtschaftsweisen’). She completed her doctorate at the Chair of Economics and Finance at the LMU in Munich and in Berkeley (USA) under Prof Clemens Fuest. 

Patricia Enssle 

Patricia Enssle is a consultant in the Latin America regional department of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (KAS) in Berlin. She previously worked at the foundation as a consultant for international dialogue programmes and scholarships with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. In the meantime, she worked as a field officer for the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVMC). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Barcelona with a research focus on Transitional Justice. 

Julia Fiedler 

Julia Fiedler is Senior Editor China at Table.Briefings. She studied Regional Studies East Asia with a focus on China and Chinese legal culture in Cologne and studied and worked in Kunming and Beijing. She has been part of the China.Table team since 2022 and focuses on business and the automotive industry. Previously, Julia Fiedler worked at the Axel Springer publishing house and as a TV journalist, including at n-tv.