Rare Earth Elements and the Geopolitical Significance of BRICS

The main message of the article is to raise the question of how resource wealth, especially in terms of such highly strategic raw materials as rare and rare earth elements (RREE), can serve as a consolidating factor in an international structure, BRICS in particular. The relevance of the topic is due to a number of circumstances. The key ones are the rapid growth of the importance of RREE in industry, especially in sectors that determine the current stage of scientific and technological progress (clean and renewable energy, upgrade of innovative products’ properties, etc.), as well as the role that China, the founder and economic leader of the BRICS, plays in ensuring global economic viability of the Forum. Therefore, the focus of the work is on the Chinese aspect of this topic, including China's comparative advantages in the field of RREE. The article provides terminological and factual explanations of the RREE phenomenon necessary for better understanding the beneficial properties of these critically important raw materials. Then, the potential of those BRICS member countries, which lead in the production of rare and rare earth elements, is characterized country by country. The key points of the work are presented in sections devoted to the geopolitical significance of RREE issues, as well as the question of whether the Forum is able to extract real collective benefits from its resource “blessing" in the near future. The author concludes that cooperation in this area, which has a bilateral level, still faces a long and difficult transition to a collective format to go through, and that the success of this transition largely depends on the stance constructiveness of China, Russia, the New Development Bank, as well as on the extent to which the multilateral level can prove more productive than the bilateral one.

BRICS, rare earth elements, China, Russia, energy transition, clean and renewable energy