With six new countries, BRICS bloc to have 11 members

New Delhi: South Africa, the host of the 15th Brics summit, announced that it extended invitations to six new countries, including Saudi Arabia, to join the group of developing nations known as Brics.

The invited countries — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — have been offered full membership status within the BRICS bloc, as disclosed by summit host Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday.

The core agenda during the Johannesburg summit was centred around the expansion of the BRICS consortium, presently composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his yesterday's speech, expressed his full endorsement of this expansion, emphasizing India's commitment to progress through consensus within the

BRICS framework. He also asked BRICS countries to support African Union membership in G 20.

Reflecting on the organization's evolution, the Indian Prime Minister harkened back to the 2016 definition of Brics as "Building Responsive, Inclusive, and Collective Solutions."

With seven years having passed since then, he envisaged a new identity for Brics: "Breaking barriers, Revitalizing economies, Inspiring Innovation, Creating opportunities, and Shaping the future." This new definition was embraced as a rallying call for all Brics partners to actively contribute to its realization.

The announcement was met with enthusiasm from various quarters. The President of the United Arab Emirates welcomed the decision, expressing the country's eagerness to join the Brics ranks.

Analysts say that the expanded Brics grouping is poised to lend symbolic weight to China and Russia's partnership, a pertinent development amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict and the broader China-US rivalry.

Beyond political symbolism, the summit also broached a pragmatic policy shift – a comprehensive plan to transition from trading in the US dollar among BRICS nations to employing local currencies for trade, underscoring the bloc's evolving economic dynamics.