BRICS Approves Membership of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Four Other Countries... Securing China's Allies

Chinese President Xi Jinping is delivering a speech at the 15th BRICS Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the 23rd (local time).
[Image source=Yonhap News]

BRICS, composed of five emerging economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, has decided to approve the admission of new member countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia.

Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, stated at a press conference held on the 24th (local time) at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, "At this summit, the five member countries agreed on the principles, criteria, and procedures for BRICS expansion."

Currently, BRICS has five member countries, but 22 countries, including Saudi Arabia, have officially requested to join BRICS. Including unofficial interest, it is known that more than 40 countries wish to join BRICS.

South Africa prepared a document containing the principles, criteria, requirements, guidelines, and procedures for BRICS expansion and submitted it to the leaders at this meeting. Based on this, the leaders held lengthy discussions and decided to admit six new full member countries.

China and Russia, which are under scrutiny from the United States, are actively promoting the expansion of BRICS membership. Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized at the summit, "We must accelerate the expansion process to attract more countries to BRICS."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.