Johannesburg: The BRICS group of countries on Thursday decided to invite the six new nations to become the full members of the bloc, with an idea to expand its global influence.
The new countires are Argentina, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Egypt.
The membership will come into effect from January 2024.
The announcement was made by the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa at the 15th BRICS Summit here.
“We’ve reached an agreement to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE to become full members of BRICS. The membership will come into effect from January 2024” he said.
Cyril Ramaphosa said,”This summit reaffirmed the importance of BRICS, people-to-people exchanges and enhancing friendship and cooperation.
“We adopted the Johannesburg two declarations which reflect key BRICS messages on matters of global economic, financial & political importance. It demonstrates the shared values & common interests that underlie our mutually beneficial cooperation as the five BRICS countries” he added.
The expansion of BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was the top of the agenda at the three-day summit in Johannesburg.
Addressing the special event, BRICS – Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue, Prime Minister Modi welcomed the expansion of BRICS, and said, ” India has always fully supported the expansion of BRICS membership”.
“India has always believed that the addition of new members will further strengthen BRICS as an organisation and it will give our shared efforts a new impetus” Modi said.
He expressed confidence that BRICS, along with the new members, will be able to infuse new momentum and new energy into the bloc’s cooperation.
The PM pointed out that India always had very close ties with all these countries…adding that new dimensions will be also added to the bilateral cooperation. He said that the expansion of the grouping was indicative of changing times and world order.
On the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Prime Minister said that it is a matter of pride for us that this achievement is being accepted as an achievement for all of humanity.
“On this historic moment, on behalf of India, its people and our scientists, I thanked the scientists and the world’s scientific community for their wishes,” Modi said.
