After a meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers with their counterparts from Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Cape Town, South Africa Thursday, June 1, 2023 | Photo Credit: PTI
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the expansion of the BRICS bloc is still a work in progress and the members of the five-nation grouping are taking the view with positive intent and an open mind.
speak after a BRICS foreign ministers meeting (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries in Cape Town on Thursday evening Mr Jaishankar said the leaders of the countries had asked him last year to prepare guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for such entry .
“Still a work in progress. We’re approaching this with an open mind and positive intent.”
There are many aspects to this. Part of this is to consolidate how existing BRICS members are working with each other. The other part of this, he said, is how BRICS connects non-BRICS countries.
“And the third part is how do we see the possible expansion of BRICS – what would be the appropriate format for that, we also need to work out,” Mr. Jaishankar 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.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he agreed with Mr. Jaishankar’s view. “BRICS is a brand and an asset, so we have to take care of it because it means and represents a lot,” Mr. Vieira said.
He said that BRICS represents 40% of the world’s population which makes it an important asset.
“We are working and maybe (it) is because of this great success that it has attracted the attention of many other countries in the 15 years (since the establishment of BRICS),” Vieira said.
China’s Vice Minister Ma Zhaoxu said the BRICS+ model that China proposed when it chairs the bloc in 2022 was developing “very rapidly”.
“It was very well recognized by the BRICS countries as well as the international community and really provided a platform for solidarity and cooperation between developing countries and emerging market economies,” Ma said.
He said that China was “very happy” to see this model develop with more and more countries expressing their desire to join the BRICS family.
“For China, we welcome the intention of those countries to join BRICS, and we hope that more countries will join our BRICS family,” he said.
Mr. Ma said that the BRICS countries are inclusive and follow the path of openness and win-win.
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, who hosted the meeting, said the meeting concluded that there was no “useful document” on the matter yet that they could hand over to their principals.
“Once we have a document providing clear guidance, we will take that to the BRICS summit (of heads of state in Pretoria) in August,” Ms Pandour said.
The BRICS+ meeting that will be part of the summit will be much larger, as presidents of various regional community bodies in different African countries and different regions of the world will also be invited to participate, Ms. Pandor said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it is not surprising that so many countries want to join BRICS because of what it stands for.
“BRICS is a symbol of a multi-polar world and the attraction of more than a dozen countries for BRICS is a testimony to this,” he said.
Earlier, addressing the meeting of Foreign Ministers of BRICS countries here, Shri Jaishankar said that the message of reform is the BRICS symbol which should pervade 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 at its core.
“Creating resilient and reliable supply chains is critical 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.
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% of the global population, 24% of global GDP and 16% of global trade.