eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
BRICS countries have decided to invite six more nations to become full members of BRICS, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told a media briefing yesterday.
Before the latest invites, BRICS was made up of five countries namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
But at the 15th BRICS Summit hosted by South Africa this week, a decision was made to invite six more countries with effect from January 1, 2024.
The six new countries invited to join BRICS are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Making the announcement yesterday morning, President Ramaphosa said the five BRICS countries had reached an agreement on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process, “which has been under discussion for quite a while”.
“We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process, and further phases will follow.”
President Ramaphosa said the grouping values “the interest of other countries in building a partnership with BRICS”.
“We have tasked our Foreign Ministers to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries and report by the next Summit.”
Zimbabwe is one of the many other countries hoping to be invited to the Grouping in the next phases.
President Ramaphosa also touched on the issue of a common currency and said the Grouping had noted the global momentum for the use of local currencies, alternative financial arrangements and alternative payment systems.
“As BRICS, we are ready to explore opportunities for improving the stability, reliability and fairness of the global financial architecture.”
In that respect, the Summit agreed to task the BRICS Finance Ministers and/or Central Bank Governors, as appropriate, to consider the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms and report back to the BRICS leaders by the next Summit.
