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With only weeks until South Africa hosts the annual two-day summit of BRICS nations in June, one official revealed that many countries requested membership to join the bloc of emerging-market states.
BRICS comprises five countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—with prominent emerging market economies.
Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to the organization, confirmed to Bloomberg on April 24 that 19 nations have expressed interest.
“What will be discussed is the expansion of BRICS and the modalities of how this will happen,” Sooklal. “Thirteen countries have formally asked to join, and another six have asked informally. We are getting applications to join every day.”
In February, Sooklal told the business news network that there had been “over a dozen countries that have knocked on the door.” This included Iran and Saudi Arabia, who made formal submissions for entry.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also confirmed that a dozen nations expressed interest in joining BRICS earlier this year, including Bangladesh, Mexico, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
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