Expansion of the bloc, which also invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, was a key agenda item at this week’s summit in South Africa.
The BRICS economic coalition of emerging markets on Thursday extended membership invitations to six nations, South African President and current BRICS chair Cyril Ramaphosa said.
The BRICS alliance — which is composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is set to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join, Ramaphosa said in a speech published on the X social media platform, previously known as Twitter.
Their membership would take effect from Jan. 1.
South Africa is presently hosting the 15th BRICS summit, where the group’s expansion was a key point of the meeting agenda. Russian President Vladimir Putin was unable to attend in person, likely on account of an International Criminal Court warrant that would have theoretically obliged the host country — an ICC signatory — to proceed with his arrest.
“BRICS is a diverse group of nations,” Ramaphosa said. “It is an equal partnership of countries that have differing views but a shared vision for a better world. As the five #BRICS members, we have reached agreement on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the #BRICS expansion process.”
More than 20 countries have formally applied for BRICS membership, including the six that Ramaphosa said were hereby invited. Other major African players, such as Nigeria and Ghana, have expressed informal interest.
China’s President Xi Jinping said Thursday that the expansion is a “new starting point for BRICs cooperation.”
He added, “It will bring new vigor to the BRICS cooperation mechanism, further strengthening a force for world peace and development,” he said at a press briefing, in comments officially translated by a summit interpreter.
Putin thanked Ramaphosa’s “unique diplomatic mastery as we negotiated all the positions, including when it comes to BRICS expansion,” noting the talks proved to be “challenging work,” according to an official summit translation.
Ramaphosa hinted at the possibility of future additions.
“We value the interest of other countries to form a partnership with BRICS. We have tasked our foreign ministers to further develop the BRICS country model and a list of prospective partner countries and report by the next summit,” he said during a press briefing of BRICS officials on Thursday.
“The relevance of the BRICS is demonstrated by the growing interest of other countries to join our group,” said Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Now the BRICS is going up to 37% of the world’s GDP in terms of its purchasing power, and 46% in terms of the world population. BRICS will continue [being] open to new members.”
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