How does China leverage BRICS to advance its ambitions for leadership within the Global South and beyond, while accommodating the diverse interests and perspectives of member states?

Experts will explore the broader geopolitical shifts that have increased BRICS’s significance, with particular focus on China’s role in the group following its recent expansion. BRICS+ constitutes a significant subset of China’s broader multilateral strategy. By advancing its financial and technological initiatives, articulating its position on major global crises, and supporting the interests of its partners and allies, China has used its engagement in BRICS to challenge Western unilateralism while promoting a distinct model of multilateralism. However, intra-BRICS dynamics warrant attention, as the original five members navigate global conflicts while both cooperating and contesting issues such as sanctions, maritime security, and responses to crises, and manage relationships with members within and outside the group.

Speakers from King’s College London and Newcastle University will explore China’s use of BRICS as a bridge to the Global South, intra-BRICS approaches to maritime security, the Chinese perspective on sanctions and its articulation within BRICS, the evolving economic relationship between India and China, and the leadership roles of China and Russia within BRICS.

Speakers

Dr Zeno Leoni is a Lecturer in Defence Studies at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, based within the Joint Services and Staff College of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He is an affiliate of the Lau China Institute of King's College London, where he is co-convenor of the same institute’s policy brief series named China in the World. He is also an affiliate of the BRICS Plus Thinking.

Dr Soumya Mishra is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, currently working on a project titled “Chinese Capital and Indian Migrants: Shaping India's Phone Manufacturing Boom.” Her research examines the relationship between China-associated capital flows into Indian manufacturing and patterns of interstate labour migration, focusing on three major phone manufacturing hubs across India. 

Dr Rishika Chauhan is a researcher and Sessional Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is also an affiliate of the BRICS Plus Thinking. Her research focuses on emerging powers and great power politics, with particular emphasis on Indian and Chinese perspectives.

Dr Maria (Mary) Papageorgiou is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University, UK. Her research examines great power politics, mainly Sino-Russian relations with a focus on military, economic, and technological domains, and China's engagement in the Middle East.

Dr Mauro Bonavita is a Sessional Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. His research focuses on maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, with a special focus on the evolving maritime order in the Indian Ocean Region. 

This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee all ticket holders a place. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. Those without tickets will not be admitted.

This event is hosted as part of King’s Lau China Institute’s CHINA WEEK (19-23 October) - a series of events designed to engage a wider audience in China. Find out more at kcl.ac.uk/china-week