Leaders of the BRICS group have decided to invite six more countries to join their alliance.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have all been invited to become members of BRICS, said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who hosted a three-day summit of the emerging markets group in Johannesburg this week.
Their membership will take effect January 1, 2024.
“We value the interest of other countries in building a partnership with BRICS,” Ramaphosa said. “We have tasked our Foreign Ministers to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries and report by the next Summit.”
The decision to broaden the grouping reflects a lack of progress in deepening the existing BRICS alliance, which despite representing a third of global GDP has diverging interests — ranging from China’s rise as a global superpower, to India’s nonalignment, to Brazil’s status as a farm exporter. Some of the new members, notably Saudi Arabia and Iran, have a history of troubled relations, holding out little prospect of coherent action beyond strengthening the representation of the Middle East and Africa. in the bloc.
Representatives from the BRICS emerging group — made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — gathered in Johannesburg for their 15th summit, the first one to be hosted in person since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin notably decided to skip the gathering of leaders, as he risked arrest under a war crimes indictment issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He opted to attend virtually instead, sending in a video message.
Earlier this month, it was reported that more than 40 countries had shown interest in joining BRICS, including 22 countries which had formally requested to join.