More BRICS or Chinese checkers? Ideally, BRICS should have balanced itself against Chinese hegemony by reviving the spirit of India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA), which predated BRICS. As in the SCO, and so in BRICS, India understands that it could be isolated. While promoting Africa, South Africa is itself not supporting African preferences. The push for setting criteria is actually a battle to choose partners that would be more amenable to current BRICS members.
