BRICS meets in early June to discuss expansion requests – the Algerian Dialogue

The member states of the “BRICS” group will meet on June 2 and 3 to discuss the accession requests submitted by 19 countries, including Algeria.

A Bloomberg report quoted Anil Soklal, South African ambassador to the group, as saying that the bloc of emerging markets in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet in Cape Town on June 2-3 to discuss its expansion. The ambassador added that what will be discussed is the expansion of the “BRICS” group and how this will happen, and he said, “13 countries have requested to join officially, and six other countries have requested informally. We are receiving requests to join every day.” Soklal said that the foreign ministers of the five member states have all confirmed that they will attend the discussions in June.

Since its formation as the BRIC group in 2006, the group has added only one new member, South Africa, in 2010. Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the countries that formally requested to join, and among other countries that have expressed interest in joining are Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Egypt, Soklal said. Bahrain and Indonesia, along with two countries from East Africa and one from West Africa.

According to the South African ambassador to BRICS, the group intends to adopt its decision this year regarding the admission of new members, as well as specifying the criteria that countries wishing to join the alliance will have to meet, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries that have submitted an official request to join the alliance.