MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Each of the BRICS participants has demonstrated undeniable interest in the activities and expansion of this association, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has told a news conference dedicated to the results of the BRICS summit in South Africa.

"The interest towards BRICS and the expansion of BRICS is undeniable," he noted. "This is what I can say about every member of the association."

"The more than 15 applications that remain on the table for further consideration are an indicator that there is an element of novelty in BRICS, including geopolitical novelty," Ryabkov continued. "The hackneyed Western templates of cooperation, bloc discipline, and the delusion that the world should be built on the binary principle: whoever is not with us is against us - all this will be a thing of the past."

Ryabkov assured that Russia’s BRICS chairmanship "will be geared to achieving results."

"The West will be forced to take this into account," he emphasized. "Of course, attempts to put pressure on BRICS, to play on what may be perceived as inconsistencies in approaches, will continue, but we have already established ourselves. BRICS is an association that has an undeniable weight and it will grow in terms of influence, including that on international processes. The collective West will have to fully reckon with it one way or another."