South African President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the achievements of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 6-7, commending its efforts for improving health and stressing the urgency for peace. At a press briefing at the summit’s conclusion, the South African Government News Agency, SAnews.gov.za, reported today that Ramaphosa stated: “We admitted a new member, Indonesia, and admitted new BRICS partner countries. [Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Nigeria were announced as partner countries on January 1, 2025.] There is a lot of interest in the Global South about being part of BRICS, which shows that BRICS continues to grow its voice, its reach and importance as well. [It] has become a fairly sizable BRICS community, which already accounts for more than half the population of the world.” He praised that “BRICS Rio de Janeiro was very successful. We leave with very fulfilled hearts, because it has added to many issues that lead to the development of our world.”
Ramaphosa stated during the BRICS plenary sessions July 7 the need to “drive the global health agenda,” that is “for disease elimination and targeted towards the most vulnerable populations.”
