MOSCOW, KOMPAS.com – Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said 13 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS.

He said the countries even came up with strategic and promising ideas for the development of the group.

BRICS is the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the five member countries of the forum.

Read also: BRICS meeting, proof that Russia still has strong allies despite Western sanctions

“Not only the leaders of the five BRICS (countries) participate in the three BRICS+ programs, but also the leaders of 13 other developing countries,” Zhang said in a special interview with Russian media. CASS on Saturday (20/8/2022).

“Focusing on issues such as the development of the BRICS mechanism, global governance, the common fight against the pandemic and economic recovery, the participants achieved a number of innovative and institutionally significant results and proposed strategic and promising ideas to address the pressing challenges facing humanity and the future development of BRICS,” he added.

In June 2022, Argentina and Iran would have officially registered with BRICS.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called the two countries viable candidates to join BRICS and the process of preparation to expand the organization has begun.

G7 Competition

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization created in 2006.

The organization held its first high-level conference (Summit) in 2009.

Also read: A stronger partnership, the BRICS ready to meet global challenges

BRICS members are influential emerging countries whose GDP reached 23.2% of total global GDP in 2018.

Palestinian-American journalist Ramzy Baroud said the development of the BRICS made him see himself as a direct rival to the G7, a group made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom United States and United States (USA).

Baroud once saw the membership of Argentina and Iran as showing the transformation of the BRICS into a geopolitical entity to compete with Western influence on the world stage.

“As NATO continues to struggle for its own relevance, Russia, China and others will invest in various economic, political and even military infrastructure in hopes of finding a permanent and lasting balance of Western dominance. ‘outcome of this conflict is likely to shape the future of humanity,’ Baroud wrote in his Opinion column. Gulf News.

Read also: China invites other countries to join Association of Developing Countries of BRICS

Get updates selected news and recent news every day on Kompas.com. Let’s join the Telegram group “Kompas.com News Update”, how to click on the link https://t.me/kompascomupdate, then join. First you need to install the Telegram app on your mobile phone.