Minister of South Africa says that 12 countries are interested in participating in the group, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina, Mexico and Nigeria
The foreign ministers of the group Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) confirmed this Thursday, the 1st, that the bloc is studying ways to open its doors to new members, although they recognized that there is still work to be done to activate this expansion. “We came to the conclusion that we still don’t have what we think is a useful document that we could present to heads of state on the group’s expansion,” said South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, who hosted the event. of a meeting of the bloc’s chancellors in Cape Town. “So more work will need to be done on this issue. As soon as we have a document that we believe provides clear guidance, we will take it to the summit in August,” she added at a press conference with the other chancellors after the meeting. The South African minister, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Brics this year, referred to the summit to take place between August 22nd and 24th in Johannesburg. In March, Pandor said in an interview that she had received “12 letters” from countries interested in joining the group, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina, Mexico and Nigeria.
“There is huge interest from all over the world. And once we have defined the (membership) criteria, we will make the decision,” she said. At the press conference, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, stated that the Brics represent “a success story”. “Perhaps one of the reasons for its success is that it has attracted the attention of many other countries. We continue to work on this issue of expansion”, he pointed out. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted that the expansion “still needs to take shape”. “BRICs is a different structure, a new organization based on the principles of equity, mutual respect, consensus, non-interference and strict adherence to the UN Charter”, he emphasized. “BRICs symbolizes the evolution of the multipolar world. The attraction of more than a dozen countries for possible membership in the bloc is a testament to this,” said Lavrov.
“I am pleased to see that more and more countries have expressed their willingness to join us in the Brics family,” said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu. “The expansion of the Brics will be beneficial for the countries of the bloc and for the developing countries”, added Ma. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the expansion “is still a work in progress”. “We approached this with a positive intention, with an open mind. We have to work on the right format for that,” he said.
*With information from EFE
Source: Jovempan
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