Senior Russian and South African officials will hold a meeting today to discuss creating a geological platform amongst the BRICS members. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Senior Russian and South African officials will hold a meeting today to discuss creating a geological platform amongst the BRICS members.

The proposed platform would enable member-states to swap intelligence regarding mineral reserves and extraction technology. This proposal surfaced due to the increasing demand for natural recourses worldwide. While today is a preliminary meeting—the heads of BRICS countries would all need to approve the platform—expect the delegates to sketch out the organizational framework of the planned platform.

If accepted, the geopolitical platform will financially benefit the member states mutually. However, it is highly possible that some member states might refuse to engage with the Russian initiative during the short-to-medium term for fear of international backlash. Members such as South Africa and Brazil, which have ambiguous relations with the West, are hesitant to collaborate with Russia due to its ongoing military incursion in Ukraine. In addition, several members are aware that the platform could pose a threat to Western energy security. Therefore, Moscow’s efforts to lobby on behalf of the geological platform could deliver very minimal results. This would be bad for Russia given that a strengthened BRICS is a main component of Moscow’s long-term foreign policy.