Today, senior Cuban Foreign Ministry official Carlos Pereira, serving as director general on bilateral affairs, posted on X: “Cuba has officially applied for its incorporation into BRICS as a partner country in a missive to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who holds the presidency of the group.” He characterized BRICS as a “key actor in global geopolitics and a hope for the countries of the South.”
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was invited by Russian President Putin last month to attend the Oct. 22-24 BRICS summit in Kazan, according to the Russian envoy in Havana Viktor Coronelli. In late September, Coronelli told RIA Novosti that “we, of course, are expecting a Cuban delegation at this summit in Kazan.” The “invitation was extended ... some time ago.”
A month ago, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed that Türkiye had officially applied to join BRICS, becoming the first NATO state to do so. More recently, Belarus Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov judged that there were at least ten new members, including Belarus, that could be admitted at the summit—though the BRICS may proceed in a more deliberate fashion, so that they can properly integrate new members into the substantial activities. RT reports that Azerbaijan, Algeria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Palestine, D.R. Congo, Gabon, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Senegal, and Bolivia are among the other nations that have expressed their wish to join the BRICS.
