BRICS reject Algeria’s membership
As was expected, the BRICS put Algeria in its place by rejecting its long sought after bid to join the group, which announced it will welcome six new countries with a diversified and higher growth economies.
The group agreed to admit Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates following its summit in Johannesburg.
The Algerian regime, thirsty for whatsoever international gains, was deflated by BRICS nations who deemed the oil and gas dependent Algerian economy unworthy of joining the group that has some of the World’s rapidly growing economies.
For over a year, Algeria has been punching above its weight asking officially to join BRICS with President Tebboune openly courting Russia to help it access the grouping of the fast-growing emerging economies.
Tebboune was seen begging in Moscow for a BRICS membership evoking political reasons while indulging in clumsy praise of Putin by playing on the chord of anti-Western sentiment.
Myopic to his country’s actual economic and political weight, Tebboune’s arrogantly told Chinese state TV that Algeria represents to Africa what China represents to the world!
While the rejection of Algeria’s membership was foreseeable, the Algerian president refused to see reality as he is preferring instead to lie to his people by promising an eminent adhesion to the bloc.
He even tried to lure BRICS members by offering to continue in their development bank NDB. But his hopes crashed on the realities of Algeria’s frail economy and sluggish growth rates.
The admission of Ethiopia raised eye-brows among some pro-regime commentators in Algeria who omitted to realize the impressive growth the Ethiopian economy witnessed in recent years which averaged 10% from 2004 to 2017.
As a state-dominated economy with an unattractive investment climate and an underdeveloped banking system, Algeria came to embody all that is wrong with the African economy. Nowhere is the resource curse more rampant than Algiers, whose economic growth is pegged on the price of gas and to a lower extent of the barrel.
The omission of Algeria from the list of new members also shows that economic influence is what matters for the BRICS which proved that it is unwilling to admit a military-run state like Algeria that has nothing to offer but anachronic rhetoric.
