MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. The fact that there are around 30 aspirants to join the BRICS highlights the promising future of the integration with global members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"Considering that more than 20, even closer to 30 countries are interested in approaching the BRICS, we see very bright future of this integration with global members," he said at his annual news conference devoted to reviewing Moscow’s main foreign policy achievements in 2023.

Being a supra-national global structure, BRICS "encapsulates the richness of multipolar world," the minister added.

"The decision taken at last year’s summit in South Africa to extend the number of participants of the integration has become a particularly important step to bolster the BRICS' position, and Russia that assumed BRICS chairmanship from January 1, will surely pay special attention to the fact that newcomers join our common work seamless thus, facilitating the strengthening of positive trends not only inside the BRICS, but internationally as well, meeting the interests of the global majority," Lavrov stressed.