Economic complementarity among diverse economies is central to the success of multilateral groupings like BRICS. Examine this statement with reference to the UAE's accession to BRICS.

Economic complementarity means members' differing endowments — energy, capital, manufacturing capacity and markets — mesh instead of competing. The UAE's entry as a full BRICS member from 1 January 2024, alongside Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran [1], largely validates the statement, though complementarity is a necessary rather than sufficient condition.

How the UAE's accession deepens complementarity

• Energy–demand fit: a major hydrocarbon exporter joins the bloc's largest importers, India and China, improving supply security within the grouping [1].
• Capital for capacity: the UAE is a sovereign-capital and financial hub; it had already joined the New Development Bank in 2021, before accession, offering a ready channel for infrastructure finance to capital-scarce members [3].
• Logistics and value chains: its ports and re-export role link BRICS to Africa and West Asia, serving the joint value chains and MSME interaction agenda pushed by India at the 14th BRICS Trade Ministers' Meeting (26 July 2024) [2].
• Demonstrated gains: the India–UAE CEPA shows complementarity converting into flows — bilateral trade crossed USD 100 billion, with a non-oil target for 2030 [4].
• Scale effect: the expanded bloc represents roughly 46% of world population and 36% of global GDP (PPP) [5], enlarging the internal market.

Why complementarity alone is insufficient

• Strategic divergence: BRICS membership is additive to the UAE's Gulf and Western partnerships, capping its appetite for de-dollarisation or bloc-versus-bloc positioning [3].
• Overlap, not only fit: Russia, Iran and the UAE compete as energy sellers; India and China compete in manufacturing.
• Institutional thinness: consensus decision-making, absence of a BRICS trade agreement, and dollar-invoiced trade limit conversion of complementarity into outcomes.
• Cohesion risk: enlargement widens preference gaps — Argentina declined and Saudi accession stayed unsettled [1].

Complementarity is thus the economic glue, but institutions decide whether it holds. Operationalising it — expanding NDB lending, local-currency settlement, and joint value chains — would let BRICS translate diversity into shared prosperity and credible Global South development, consistent with the SDG agenda.