PHPurnima Anand, president of the BRICS international forum, said on July 14 that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are considering joining BRICS. The possibility of countries joining, as well as their potential admission to the ranks of the BRICS, could take place in 2023 when the next summit of the group will be held. The countries themselves have E×ρréššed a desire to join the union, but if approved, the application process will be lengthy.
South Africa will host the next summit in 2023, where the member countries will make the final decision.
In addition to the aforementioned countries, Iran and Argentina want to join the group. They have already submitted their applications.
On June 1-2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Riyadh, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi prince E×ρréššed his serious intention to join the BRICS.
From June 23-24, Russia, China and India discussed the issue in an online format. The talks took place on the sidelines of the 14th summit of the BRICS leaders which was also attended by 13 observer countries. Just after the summit, Argentina and Iran applied to the group. Argentina said that together the organization represents 42% of the world’s population and 24% of GDP, while Iran E×ρréššed the position that the new members would only bring mutual benefits.
With the accession of new members, the total GDP of the countries will amount to more than $ 27 trillion, which is currently the sum of the GDP of only four members.
The accession process will be heterogeneous, some countries will join a little faster than others, for example, Turkey is the closest to joining BRICS, although at the moment the Turks are experiencing serious economic difficulties.
There are no criteria for accession, so the timing of the accession of new members is unclear.
The main criteria is the country’s leadership in the region and in its integration group, but the formats of leadership are not defined, we can only assume that these are political and economic factors. According to the preferable scenario, the BRICS plans are to include every leader country from each region.
Russia noted that it wants to see all the countries that have applied for membership in the organization. Russia sees the potential of new member countries. Turkey is an active player on the world stage, while Egypt founded the New Development Bank. Moreover, Turkey wanted to join the BRICS back in 2018, but then the countries found only the BRICS+ format acceptable, although now they have a more flexible approach to the issue.
