At a press conference held early this morning in Johannesburg, attended by the heads of state of four BRICS nations, China’s President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyrill Ramaphosa, and by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Indian Prime Minister Modi announced that leaders of the five member nations had by consensus agreed to welcome six new nations to become full-fledged members of the BRICS: Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Their membership will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Notably, Modi and Xi were seen chatting as they walked into the room together and had a brief bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit. (see separate slug)
In his remarks, Modi announced that the group has agreed on “the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for expansion of the BRICS” and emphasized that the modernization and expansion of the BRICS should serve as a model for all global institutions that need to reform in changing times. India has always favored expansion of the BRICS, he said, underscoring that this new expansion will provide energy and direction to the group. After extending a welcome to the six new members, he added that for other countries that had expressed interest in joining the BRICS, India will work to build a consensus so that these nations can participate in BRICS “as partner countries” which will be discussed at the next BRICs summit in Kazan, Russia in October of 2024.
