BRICS nations agree on expansion, South Africa foreign minister says

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BRICS nations agree on expansion, South Africa foreign minister says

5:15 CAT | 23 Aug 2023

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a BRICS family photo during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 23, 2023. . [Photo: Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via Reuters]

Leaders of the BRICS bloc of leading developing nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have agreed mechanisms for considering new members, South Africa’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Agreement on expansion paves the way for dozens of interested candidate nations to make their case for joining the grouping, which has pledged to become a champion of the developing “Global South”.

Enlarging BRICS has topped the agenda at a summit taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital. While all BRICS members had publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there had been divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.

“We have agreed on the matter of expansion,” Naledi Pandor said on Ubuntu Radio, a station run by South Africa’s foreign ministry.

“We have a document that we’ve adopted which sets out guidelines and principles, processes for considering countries that wish to become members of BRICS…That’s very positive.”

Pandor said the bloc’s leaders would make a more detailed announcement on expansion before the summit concludes on Thursday.

More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials, and 22 – Iran, Venezuela and Algeria among them – have formally asked to be admitted.

Source: Reuters