YEKATERINBURG, August 15. /TASS/. BRICS members will promote sectoral interaction and political cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
"Certainly, mutually beneficial cooperation is in the focus," the minister said. "Considering that BRICS represents nations from all developing regions of the world, this is a highly important format to align approaches towards key international problems within its framework," he added.
BRICS was created as an "exclusively economic association" Lavrov said. "Our partners and not we introduced political problems into BRICS agenda and we agreed with that," he added.
"Sectoral interaction will be developed definitely, particularly in the energy sphere, and political cooperation will be strengthened," Lavrov said.
"When questions are asked about future of BRICS, an opportunity of admitting new members is generally meant," Lavrov said. "No plans to do so are in place for the time being, although interest in BRICS is very high," he said.
"Current opportunities make possible [for BRICS members - TASS] to cooperate with countries that are opinion allies with BRICS even without expansion of this association," Lavrov said, particularly in outreach format during BRICS summits and on the sidelines of other international venues.
BRICS is an informal association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa founded in June 2006.