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The BRICS group of counties – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, together with new entrants Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have agreed to temporarily suspend the accepting of new members. The reason given is to allow time to integrate the latest members who joined from January 1st this year. Saudi Arabia is yet to fully complete its own ratification process.
The BRICS foreign ministers meeting was held this month where the issue was discussed. A full BRICS Heads of State conference is due to take place in Kazan in October.
About 30 additional countries, including heavy hitters such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Turkiye have made overtures to join the bloc. However, mutual trade issues between existing members also require strategic coordination and the bloc seems to feel it should concentrate on its existing status before expanding further. A key issue is trade settlements and the creation of an intra-BRICS tradeable financial unit, which has yet to be resolved.
A new BRICS five year development strategy also needs to be worked on, with the current five year plan expiring in January 2025.
