By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor has said leaders of the BRICS bloc of leading developing nations, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have agreed on mechanisms for considering new members.
Modalities for expansion creates opportunity for dozens of interested nations to make their case for joining the bloc, which has pledged to become a champion of the developing “Global South.”
Expansion of the bloc’s membership has topped agenda in the ongoing annual summit of BRICS in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, expected to end on Thursday.
While all BRICS members had publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there had been divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.
“We have agreed on the matter of expansion,” Pandor said on Ubuntu Radio on Wednesday, a station run by South Africa’s foreign ministry.
“We have a document that we’ve adopted which sets out guidelines and principles, processes for considering countries that wish to become members of BRICS…That’s very positive.”
Pandor said the bloc’s leaders would make a more detailed announcement on expansion before the summit concludes on Thursday.
No fewer than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials, and 22 – Iran, Venezuela and Algeria among them have formally asked to be admitted.
