Global Courant
MOSCOW
About 20 countries want to join the BRICS economic bloc, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday.
The increasing number of states seeking cooperation with BRICS, which stands for current members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, shows the importance of this format in the global arena, Ryabkov told the Russian state-owned news agency TASS.
Discussions continue on what the criteria for accession to the BRICS might be, and South Africa has intensified this work,” and additional contacts are expected before the BRICS leaders’ summit in August.
The senior diplomat said South Africa’s participation in the bloc was a “successful experience”, reminding that the decision was made based on the consensus of other participants.
“I think strong candidates … can also turn to this experience, guessing for themselves what will and will not happen,” he said.
Ryabkov urged other BRICS participants to be “open” when deciding to recruit new members, noting that Russia supports the idea of acquiring Arab and Asia-Pacific countries as they “lack” economic bloc representations.
Asked whether South Africa would guarantee immunity to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS leaders’ summit scheduled for August, as the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him, Ryabkov said Moscow considered the document “legally unimportant, provocative and categorical. He said he found it impossible.
“As the host country of the BRICS summit, we expect South Africa to strictly guide the understanding that senior officials enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution,” Ryabkov said. said.
“We have sent relevant signals to South Africa and we expect everything to be organized in this way in terms of the summit and the participation of the Russian leadership,” he said.
Only a part of the news presented to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS) and a summary are available on the Anadolu Agency website. Please contact us for subscription options.
