The group of emerging economies BRICS has agreed to the entry into the bloc of Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, as announced this Thursday by the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, on the last day of the XV Summit of Heads of State and of Government of the group, which takes place in Johannesburg. The five countries of the BRICS group, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have reached this agreement “on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures” of the “BRICS expansion process”.

At the top is also the Russian President Vladimir Putinwhat has reappeared in public although keeping silence about the latest events in the region, which ended with the death of one of his critics, Yegveni Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group. Two months after leading a mutiny against the Kremlin, Moscow presumes deadwhen the plane in which he was traveling crashed in the Russian region of Tver.

“We have decided to invite the Republic of Argentina, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members of the BRICS from January 1, 2024″, stressed the South African president.

Ramaphosa has indicated that there is “a consensus on the first phase of this expansion process”, in a joint press conference with his Brazilian counterparts, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Chinese, Xi Jinping; the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, representing Putin.

The South African government has ensured that Some 40 countries have expressed their desire to join the club and that they have received “formal expressions of interest” from 23 countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras and Venezuela. China had especially supported the expansion of the BRICS, which are seeking more weight in international institutions, hitherto dominated by the United States and Europe; whenever Beijing wants to expand its influence in competition with the United States.

In the case of Argentina, Lula stressed on Tuesday that “it is very important that Argentina be in the BRICS.” Brazil is the main trading partner of neighboring Argentina.

The BRICS group, since 2006

Brazil, Russia, India and China created in 2006 the brics groupjoined by South Africa in 2010 by adding the letter S to the acronym.

The block represents more than 42% of the world population and 30% of the planet’s territory, as well as 23% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 18% of world trade.