BRICS Membership Perspectives for Argentina and Paraguay: Engagement with China in the 21st Century

This open-access paper examines the prospects of Argentina and Paraguay joining BRICS within the current multipolar world order. Both countries, traditionally raw-material exporters, face structural limitations derived from their semi-peripheral status but also encounter opportunities to diversify alliances. Argentina’s trajectory reveals oscillations between pragmatism and ideology: selective engagement under Menem and Macri, a stronger South-South orientation during the Kirchner administrations, and outright rejection under President Milei. Paraguay, by contrast, embodies strategic conservatism through its longstanding recognition of Taiwan, which generates significant economic and geopolitical costs by excluding China and blocking its access to BRICS. The paper concludes that while Argentina must overcome ideological inconsistency to take advantage of BRICS opportunities, Paraguay faces a critical dilemma: redefine its loyalty to Taiwan or resign itself to structural disadvantages in an evolving global order.