MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Representatives of business circles of new BRICS member states are actively establishing ties and joining the group’s general activities, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Russia’s Sherpa in BRICS Sergey Ryabkov said.

"Representatives of new member states of the integration are quite active in the BRICS business area," he told a forum, adding that "it lays down a solid foundation for comprehensive and multifaceted joint work in the future."

Cooperation of all countries through business circles is an integral part of the group’s work, Ryabkov added.

Since its inception in 2006, the BRICS has experienced two phases of expansion. In 2011, South Africa joined the original group, which included Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Argentina was one of six new members invited to join the association in August 2023, but it declined at the end of December. On January 1, 2024, five new members of the association began full-time work in BRICS - Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.

Russia assumed the one-year rotating chairmanship of BRICS on January 1, 2024. On Moscow’s watch, around 250 events are planned, with the summit that is to take place in October in Kazan in Russia’s Volga region, to be the central one.