New Delhi [India], May 30 : The Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that BRICS is an important platform and India looks forward to participation in meetings organized by Russia as BRICS chair this year.
At a weekly media briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that as far as membership in BRICS is concerned, it is for the grouping to decide, and the grouping decides based on certain criteria that they have laid down. So if the group decides on a particular membership of expansion or to consider a particular country, the group will do so as per the guidelines of the BRICS grouping, he added.
On January 1, 2024, Russia took over the chairmanship of BRICS, an intergovernmental organisation that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, plus four new members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS as new full members, which is a strong indication of the growing authority of the association and its role in international affairs.
Recently, while speaking to ANI, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry expressed his country's keenness to join the BRICS grouping and conveyed that the group has become a 'good body' after India became part of it.
He emphasised that Sri Lanka would reach out first to India whenever it formally applied to join the BRICS grouping.
"We will look forward to BRICS. Also, I think the cabinet has appointed a subcommittee to look into that and recommend it to us. We would like to see that because we would like to have multiple options. Who doesn't want to? So therefore, BRICS is a good body, particularly since India is a part of it," Sabry said in an interview with ANI.
"The first country we would be talking to is India and seek India's support for us to reach to the BRICS. And then, of course, I have been invited to take part on the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Russia. So I hope that I will be there and then we will assess that. And yes, I think that right now personally if you ask me, I think that we should look at BRICS seriously," he added.
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