Moscow, Russia — BRICS will coordinate its approaches with the new members within international formats, including the United Nations and the Group of Twenty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday.
“Naturally, we will coordinate our approaches with the new members within the United Nations, the Group of Twenty and other international platforms,” he said in an interview with the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel, according to TASS.
The BRICS summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 22 to 24, 2023 and was chaired by South Africa.
With the leaders of 54 African nations invited, this was the biggest meeting of the heads of state and government of the Global South in recent years.
Participants in the summit agreed that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will join the association from January 1, 2024.
A new list of possible members will be compiled by the next BRICS summit. According to South Africa’s Ambassador at Large for Asia and BRICS Affairs and BRICS Sherpa Anil Sooklal, around 30 countries are interested in joining the association and some of them have officially applied for membership.
‘BRICS leaders deal with real issues’
Lavrov said BRICS leaders deal with real issues while Western politicians and reporters “tend to mostly wag their tongues”.
“It shows that they wag their tongues, while we use our heads and [engage in] concrete issues,” the minister said.
‘Expanded BRICS to consolidate its position in G20‘
Lavrov said BRICS will consolidate its positions in the Group of Twenty after admitting new members.
“Naturally, the expanded BRICS’ positions in the Group of Twenty will strengthen because both Saudi Arabia and Argentina are its members. So, the formal division of the Group of Twenty into the G7+ and BRICS+ is taking a practical shape,” he said.
‘BRICS doesn’t want to infringe on anyone’s interests’
BRICS is not seeking to infringe upon anyone’s interests but only wants to develop its projects, he added.
“We don’t want to encroach on anyone’s interests. We simply don’t want anyone to hamper the development of our mutually beneficial projects that are not aimed against anyone,” Lavrov.
When asked whether the expanded BRICS could someday become an alternative to the Group of Twenty, Lavrov said, “There is no need in this now.”