MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Moscow believes that it’s important to consider the opinions of all BRICS member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) when making decisions on inviting outsiders to the organization’s summit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told RT on Thursday.

"Of course, it is up to the host country, South Africa, to decide whether or not to invite someone but I would like to point out that we always insist that comprehensive consultations between BRICS nations should be held before any possible participants are considered," the deputy foreign minister said, adding that "this also goes for France’s possible interest in attending the event."

Earlier on Thursday, Ryabkov told reporters in response to a TASS question that Russia had informed its South African partners that it viewed French President Emmanuel Macron’s possible participation in the upcoming BRICS summit as inappropriate. "We made it clear that, with all due respect to the host country’s right to invite guests, it must be assumed that BRICS is an association of states that fundamentally reject unilateral sanctions as a way to achieve foreign policy goals. That said, it’s absolutely clear that the participation of the collective West’s representatives would be inappropriate," the senior diplomat noted.

South Africa is currently chairing BRICS. The organization’s summit is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on August 22-24. French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna said earlier, following talks with South Africa’s top diplomat Naledi Pandor, that Macron might consider the possibility of participating in the BRICS summit, should he receive an invitation. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in turn, said that the Kremlin was unable to understand in what capacity the French leader could take part in the meeting of BRICS leaders.