BRICS Meet 2023: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the expansion of the BRICS bloc is still a work in progress and the members of the five-nation grouping are approaching the idea with positive intent and an open mind. Specifically, BRICS is an informal grouping of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. After the meeting of foreign ministers of BRICS countries in Cape Town on Thursday evening, Jaishankar said the leaders of the countries had last year asked him to prepare guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for such entry.
What Jaishankar said?
“Still a work in progress. We are approaching this with an open mind and positive intent. There are many aspects to this. Part of it is to consolidate how existing BRICS members are working with each other. Part is how BRICS connects non-BRICS countries. And the third part is how we see the possible expansion of BRICS – what would be the appropriate format for that, we also need to work out,” Jaishankar said. Said.
“The bottom line is that we are still working on it; The Sherpas (representing the BRICS members) have been tasked with this and we will have to see what they come up with.
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BRICS ‘an established feature of the global landscape’
Earlier, while addressing the meeting of foreign ministers of BRICS countries, Jaishankar said that the message of BRICS reform should spread to the world of multilateralism. “BRICS is no longer an ‘option’, it is an established feature of the global landscape,” he tweeted.
He said that the grouping of five countries comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is not only an expression of multipolarity but also an expression of many and diverse ways of addressing international challenges.
“Its focus is on building a fair, inclusive and open international architecture with sustainable development. Building resilient and reliable supply chains is central to ensuring no one is left behind,” he tweeted. Jaishankar said that the ‘friends of BRICS’ strongly support the reform of the UN Security Council.
Which are all the countries seeking BRICS membership?
Countries reportedly seeking membership in the BRICS bloc include Egypt and the Middle Eastern oil-producing countries 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 the world’s five largest developing countries, representing 41 percent of the global population, 24 percent of global GDP and 16 percent of global trade.
(With PTI inputs)