Leaders of the BRICS bloc of leading developing countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have agreed mechanisms for considering new members, South Africa’s foreign minister says.
Agreement on expansion paves the way for dozens of interested candidate countries 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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met at a conference centre on Wednesday in the Sandton financial district in South Africa’s biggest city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who did not travel to the summit after being issued an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, joined via video link from Moscow.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Johannesburg to represent Russia.
Ramaphosa said all five leaders backed the principle of expansion.
“We stand at the cusp of expanding the BRICS family because it is through this expansion that we will be able to have a much stronger BRICS in these turbulent times that we live in,” Ramaphosa said.
More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, South African officials say, and 22 – Iran, Venezuela and Algeria among them – have formally asked to be admitted.
with AP