The BRICS economic coalition of emerging countries extended membership invitations to six nations on Thursday, South African President and current BRICS chairman Cyril Ramaphosa said.
The BRICS alliance, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, unanimously approved the accession of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Ramaphosa said in a published speech. on social media platform Xformerly known as Twitter.
“The BRICS have embarked on a new chapter in their effort to build a just world, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous,” Ramaphosa said at the ongoing summit in Johannesburg.
New candidates will be formally admitted as members on January 1, 2024.
A total of 23 countries formally applied to become BRICS members, including the six that Mr. Ramaphosa said we were approved of. Other major African players, such as Nigeria and Ghana, have expressed informal interest, CNBC reported.
Ramaphosa and the Brazilian president, Luiz Silva, left the door open to the possibility of admitting other new members in the future.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow,” Ramaphosa told a news conference.
Silva said the promises of globalization had failed, adding that it was time to reinvigorate cooperation within developing countries as “there is a risk of nuclear war,” Reuters reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that the expansion is a “new starting point for BRICs cooperation.”
“It will bring new vigor to the BRICS cooperation mechanism, further strengthening a force for world peace and development,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters at a news conference.
United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, whose country is already a member of the bloc’s New Development Bank (NDB), said he appreciated his country’s inclusion as a new member.
“We respect the vision of the BRICS leaders and appreciate the inclusion of the United Arab Emirates as a member of this important group. We look forward to a continued commitment to cooperation for the prosperity, dignity and benefit of all nations and people around the world.” Mr. Zayed said in X. following the announcement.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said the countries have started a “working group to study a reference currency for the BRICS.”
A reference currency can be described as the primary legal tender used to conduct foreign banking transactions at a specified exchange rate.
Lula has been a strong advocate of a common BRICS currency.
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Let hear it in the comment below if you do have an opinion on this; Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and three others allowed to join BRICS