Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will join the BRICS group of countries as new members, it was determined on Thursday.
Beginning on January 1, 2024, the new membership will take effect.
The first such expansion since South Africa was admitted to the BRICS grouping in 2010, was endorsed by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have all been invited to join the BRICS as part of the organization’s initial expansion, according to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.
With this expansion, BRICS currently includes six of the top nine oil producers in the world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I take this opportunity to welcome these six nations to BRICS… and I congratulate the leaders and people of these nations. India has close ties, historic ties, with each of these countries and I believe we will work together for a new era of cooperation and prosperity,”
“On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of BRICS, we have taken the decision to expand this forum. India has always fully supported this expansion. Such an expansion will make BRICS stronger and more effective. In that spirit, India welcomes Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE into the BRICS family,” he further said on X (earlier Twitter).
The announcement was made by President Ramaphosa in his opening remarks as the summit’s and BRICS’s chair. He then encouraged his counterparts and colleagues from the BRICS member states to make their own statements.
“This summit reaffirmed the importance of BRICS, people-to-people exchanges & enhancing friendship & cooperation…We adopted the Johannesburg two declarations which reflect key BRICS messages on matters of global economic, financial, and political importance. It demonstrates the shared values & common interests that underlie our mutually beneficial cooperation as the five BRICS countries…” Ramaphosa said.
AP — Johannesberg Six nations, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, were asked to join the BRICS group of developing economies on Thursday.
This action hinted to a deepening of the China-Russian alliance as Western tensions rise.
The five leaders were trapped in closed-door meetings for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday, despite the fact that there has been momentum for a BRICS expansion for months, driven mostly by China and Russia.
On the last day of the summit, the leaders emerged with an agreement on expanding and a list of nations.
Since BRICS is a consensus-based organization, all members must concur on all decisions.
The group, which was founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China and later expanded to include South Africa, made its most momentous decision in more than ten years on Thursday in the high-rise Sandton financial district of Johannesburg.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s political deputy Mohammad Jamshidi referred to Iran’s membership in BRICS as a “strategic victory for Iran’s foreign policy.”
Raisi and Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, both attended the conference.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan suggested that the oil-rich nation should lead the bloc due to its wealth, resources, and access to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
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In a surprising turn of events, Saudi Arabia’s membership appeared questionable as Prince Faisal said later on Thursday that the kingdom appreciated the invitation but would first review the facts before the anticipated January 1 joining date and take “the appropriate decision.”
BRICS presently accounts for around 40% of global population and more than a quarter of global GDP, and that percentage is expected to rise.
Three of the top oil producers in the world—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran—are among the possible new members.
“This membership expansion is historic,” Chinese leader Xi described. “It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and development.”
Saudi Arabia and the UAE could contribute fresh funding to the New Development Bank of the BRICS.
The two countries that owe the IMF the most money are Argentina and Egypt, according to experts, and both have needed bailouts.
With 120 million citizens, Ethiopia is the second-most populated country in Africa. The U.S. and the EU have clashed with Ethiopia over their criticism of the recent war in the country’s Tigray area.
BRICS membership, according to Argentinean President Alberto Fernández, is “a new opportunity” that “strengthens us.”
The stated goal of BRICS is to raise the voice of the Global South.
This week, dozens of other poor nations present at the summit, including the summit’s five existing members, made repeated calls for a more equitable international system and the reform of organizations like the United Nations, the IMF, and the World Bank.
Until recently, it would have been impossible for Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to be part of the same economic or political organization due to the escalating tensions that followed the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.
However, the UAE was the first to resume diplomatic relations with Iran, and in March, Saudi Arabia and Iran both declared that they had struck a détente, in large part because to Chinese intervention.
Recently, China has pushed for a stronger presence in the Gulf and tighter ties with all three countries, especially Iran, from which it has imported oil.
Infuriating the United States, which has historically given security assurances for the major oil-producing countries, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also maintained relations with Russia throughout the conflict in Ukraine.
At the U.N. Security Council last month, the U.S. and its Western allies fought with Russia and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment and the alleged delivery of combat drones to Russia for use in attacking Ukraine.
