Johannesburg: The BRICS group of nations has decided to invite six nations — Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — to become new members of the bloc, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.
The new membership will be effective from January 1, 2024. This is the first such expansion since 2010, when South Africa was inducted into the BRICS group. With this expansion, six of the world’s nine largest oil producers are now part of BRICS.
The SA President Ramaphosa made the announcement while issuing the Johannesburg Declaration of 15th BRICS Summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “India has always supported the expansion of BRICS and has always believed that adding new members will strengthen BRICS as an organisation.”
“This summit reaffirmed the importance of BRICS, people-to-people exchanges and enhancing friendship & cooperation… We adopted the Johannesburg Declarations which reflect key BRICS messages on matters of global economic, financial and political importance. It demonstrates the shared values and common interests that underlie our mutually beneficial cooperation as the five BRICS countries,” Ramaphosa said.