STATEMENT: Solidarity with Ghana as it moves to join BRICS

Our welcome
The Socialist and Progressive World welcomes the decision of the Government of Ghana to seek membership of BRICS, and salutes the Ghanaian people in their forward march to assert their sovereignty within the comity of nations. On 6 October 2026, Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced in Accra that Cabinet had approved a decision to seek membership, that Ghana will now formally apply, and that admission rests with the approval of the grouping. The announcement was made at a joint press briefing with India's foreign minister, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the symbolism was deliberate.

A shift in the architecture of world power

Ghana's decision recognises a shift in global power that is already well advanced. The current BRICS membership accounts for roughly half of humanity, some 3.9 billion people, with a combined nominal GDP of about $32 trillion and about 40 per cent of global output in purchasing power parity terms. The purchasing power measure is the honest one for understanding real economic weight, because it captures what an economy actually produces and what its citizens can buy at home, rather than how its currency is valued in dollar markets. The gap between the two measures is itself a lesson. It shows how a financial system built around a few reserve currencies has long undervalued the productive capacity of the South. The world is moving, however unevenly, from unipolar dominance towards a multipolar order in which the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America speak with their own voices.

Background and context

BRICS began as a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China, was joined by South Africa, and has since expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Its New Development Bank, founded in 2014, demonstrated that the South could build its own financial institutions without waiting for permission from Washington or Brussels. The partner country category, created in 2024, widened the circle further, and Nigeria and Uganda are already inside it. Ghana's earlier step, joining the TV BRICS media network through the Ghana News Agency in July, showed a quieter alignment in progress. Ablakwa described the recent BRICS summit in New Delhi as very successful, and Jaishankar said that the grouping brings together countries that value independence of thought and freedom of choice, and spoke of a world moving towards multipolarity.

A sovereign choice, not a departure

Ghana's case is that membership offers options. Ablakwa stressed that Ghana would not walk away from its traditional development partners. We regard this as the mark of a mature, independent foreign policy: a sovereign state choosing its own friends and widening its options.

The opportunities for Ghana

Ghana is emerging from a hard period of debt restructuring and stabilisation, and its government now speaks of a transformative New Economy. BRICS offers access to alternative development finance, to investment in railways, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and technology, and to trade arrangements less dependent on a single dominant currency. The India partnership already points the way, with memoranda signed on agricultural research and training and on science and technology during Jaishankar's visit. Ghana also hosts the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which makes it a natural bridge between African integration and the wider South-South project. A Ghana inside BRICS would add a West African democratic voice to a bloc that has grown rapidly in the Gulf, Asia and Northern and Eastern Africa.

Wider ramifications

Each new African application strengthens the continent's claim to a permanent place in global decision-making, which the United Nations Security Council, the IMF and the World Bank still deny it. It also encourages the use of local currencies in trade, a reform that would reduce the exposure of poorer countries to shocks originating in far-off central banks. Ghana should expect pressure and scrutiny from established partners, and it will need to work with care and in concert with other Southern states. Solidarity from socialist and progressive governments, movements and peoples across the world therefore matters, since a sovereign choice is easier to sustain when it is publicly supported.

Our position

1. We support Ghana's right to determine its own alliances and development path, free from pressure, conditionality or coercion.
2. We support the reform of global finance, including development banking and trade in local currencies, so that poorer nations are no longer exposed to shocks made elsewhere.
3. We support African integration, and recognise Ghana's role as host of the African Continental Free Trade Area secretariat.
4. We call for transparency in the application and in any resulting agreements, with public debate and parliamentary scrutiny.
5. We insist that the benefits of membership reach farmers, workers, women and young people, through value addition to Ghana's cocoa, gold and minerals at home.
6. We call for domestic institutions to be strengthened alongside external partnerships.
7. We call on all progressive governments, movements and peoples to stand in solidarity with Ghana against any attempt to punish her for exercising a sovereign choice.

A candid word on the work ahead

BRICS is a diverse association of states, and its members hold differing political systems and priorities. No external bloc can substitute for strong domestic institutions and popular participation. Real gains will come only if Ghana negotiates transparent terms, adds value to its resources at home, and ensures that the dividends reach those who produce the country's wealth. Membership is a tool, and its value will depend on how it is used.

Our call

We call on the whole Global South, and on the progressive forces within Ghana and around the world, to support the application, scrutinise its terms, and build the solidarity, the public debate and the productive economy that will make membership meaningful. The world order is being rewritten, and Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to win independence, has every reason to help write it. The legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-African movement lives in this moment. We pledge our solidarity.

Forward with Ghana! Forward with the Global South!

Socialist and Progressive World