BRICS expansion still in progress, says Jaishankar

The expansion of the BRICS bloc is still a work in progress and members of the five-nation grouping are approaching the idea with positive intention and an open mind, said Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

Speaking after a meeting of the foreign ministers of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations in Cape Town on Thursday night, Jaishankar said the countries’ leaders had asked them last year that formulate the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for said admissions.

“This is still a work in progress. We are approaching this with positive intent and an open mind,” she said. It has many aspects. One part of this is consolidating how the existing BRICS members are working with each other. The second part is how the BRICS engage non-BRICS countries, she said.

“And the third part is how we see the possible expansion of BRICS – what will be the appropriate format for that is also something we need to work on,” Jaishankar said. The bottom line is that we are still working on it; the Sherpas (representing the BRICS members) have been given the task and we will have to see what they come up with, he added.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he agreed with Jaishankar’s view.

BRICS is a brand and an asset, so we have to take care of it because it means and represents a lot, said Vieira. He said the BRICS make up 40 percent of the world’s population, making them a major asset.

“We are working and maybe (it is) because of this great success that it has attracted the attention of many other countries in the 15 years (since the inception of BRIC),” Vieira added. Chinese Vice Minister Ma Zhaoxu said the BRICS+ model that China proposed when it was the bloc’s presidency in 2022 was developing very fast.

“That was very well recognized by the BRICS countries as well as the international community and actually provided a platform for solidarity and cooperation between developing countries and emerging market economies,” Zhaoxu said.

He said China was “very happy” to see this model developing with more and more countries expressing their willingness to join the BRICS family.

“For China, we welcome the intention of those countries to join the BRICS, and we look forward to more countries joining our BRICS family,” he said. BRICS countries are inclusive, follow the path of opening up and win-win cooperation, Zhaoxu said.

This is in stark contrast to the small circle of some countries. I think that the enlargement of the BRICS will be beneficial for the BRICS countries; beneficial for developing countries; and will increase the representation and influence of this mechanism. “And gain greater power from the BRICS to serve the interests of developing countries and emerging economies, as well as the cause of international development,” Zhaoxu added.

South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, who hosted the meeting, said the meeting had concluded that there was not yet a useful paper on the subject that they could present to their directors.

Once we have a document that offers clear guidance, we will take it to the BRICS (of heads of state in Pretoria) Summit in August, Pandor said.

The BRICS+ meeting that will be part of the summit would be quite large as several African countries and heads of various regional community bodies in different regions of the world would also be invited to attend, Pandor added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was not surprising that so many countries wanted to join BRICS because of what it stood for.

BRICS symbolizes the multipolar world, and the attraction of more than a dozen countries towards BRICS is a testament to that, he said. Countries reportedly seeking BRICS membership include Egypt and the Middle Eastern oil-producing nations of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

South American countries seeking membership include Venezuela and Argentina. The BRICS bloc brings together five of the world’s largest developing countries, accounting for 41 percent of the world’s population, 24 percent of world GDP and 16 percent of world trade.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed: ITP)