BRICS invites six new members to join bloc

The BRICS group of nations has decided to invite six countries - Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - to become new members of the bloc, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

The debate over expanding the BRICS bloc, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has topped the agenda at a three-day summit in Johannesburg ending on Thursday, reports Reuters.

While all BRICS members have publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there were divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.

Their membership will take effect from January 1 next year, NDTV reports.

South Africa's BRICS Sherpa Anil Sooklal told TASS on Wednesday that the leaders "will tomorrow morning have a further meeting to finalize the list of countries, and thereafter there will be a press conference tomorrow morning when President Ramaphosa will formally announce the list of countries that have been agreed to by all of the BRICS countries."

"Our leaders had a discussion last night based on the recommendation of ministers," he explained. "It was quite an extensive discussion, because expansion has to be a carefully considered position, and they continued discussion today, and they have now reached consensus on expansion."

The diplomat underscored that BRICS expansion criteria had already been "finalized and adopted by consensus by our leaders."

"So that process is finalized, which has made it possible for them now to finalize countries that they [the leaders] will consider for full membership. So by tomorrow morning, that's the last meeting they will have. They will finalize the consultation on which countries they agree on, and there will be a formal announcement tomorrow morning," Sooklal said.

He added that the work on BRICS expansion criteria was actively conducted at various levels since last year.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said earlier the leaders had eventually come to terms about accepting new members and approved a document specifying membership's principles, requirements and procedure.

/KN/