[1/4]South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a press convention because the BRICS Summit is held in Johannesburg, South Africa August 24, 2023. REUTERS/Alet Pretorius Acquire Licensing Rights
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Leaders of the BRICS group of developing nations have invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates to join, in a transfer aimed toward rising the clout of a bloc that has pledged to champion the “Global South”.
Expansion may additionally pave the way in which for dozens of international locations to search admission to BRICS – at the moment Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – at a time when geopolitical polarisation is spurring efforts by Beijing and Moscow to forge it right into a viable counterweight to the West.
The new candidate members have been introduced by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who’s internet hosting a summit of BRICS leaders.
“BRICS has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” he stated.
The new candidates shall be formally admitted as members on Jan. 1, 2024. Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left the door open to the opportunity of admitting different new members in future.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow,” Ramaphosa stated at a media briefing.
Lula stated globalisation’s guarantees had failed, including that it was time to revitalise cooperation with developing international locations as “there is a risk of nuclear war”, an obvious allusion to rising tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine battle.
United Arab Emirates’ President Mohammed bin Zayed, whose nation is already a member of the bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB), stated he appreciated the inclusion of his nation as a brand new member.
“We look forward to a continued commitment of cooperation for the prosperity, dignity and benefit of all nations and people around the world,” he posted on messaging platform X, previously generally known as Twitter.
PLEDGE TO REBALANCE WORLD ORDER
The debate over enlargement has topped the agenda on the three-day summit happening in Johannesburg. And whereas all BRICS members publicly expressed assist for rising the bloc, there have been divisions among the many leaders over how a lot and how rapidly.
Though residence to about 40% of the world’s inhabitants and 1 / 4 of worldwide gross home product, BRICS members’ failure to decide on a coherent imaginative and prescient for the bloc has lengthy left it punching beneath its weight as a worldwide political and financial participant.
“This membership expansion is historic,” China’s President Xi Jinping stated in remarks following the announcement on enlargement. “It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries.”
More than 40 international locations have expressed curiosity in becoming a member of BRICS, say South African officers, and 22 have formally requested to be admitted.
They characterize a disparate pool of potential candidates motivated largely by a want to stage a worldwide enjoying discipline many take into account rigged in opposition to them.
They are attracted by BRICS’ promise to rebalance world our bodies dominated by the United States and different rich Western states.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated the bloc’s growth must be an instance to different international establishments based within the 20th century which have grow to be outdated.
“The expansion and modernization of BRICS is a message that all institutions in the world need to mould themselves according to changing times,” he stated.
Reporting by Carien du Plessis
Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Toby Chopra and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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