MOSCOW, April19. /TASS/. BRICS’ expansion has made it much stronger, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

"With a third of our presidency over, we can state that the leaders made a decision, which made BRICS much stronger. It has established itself as an influential cooperation system, a major link in the emerging architecture of the multi-polar world," he said in an interview with TV BRICS when asked about BRICS’ expansion inn 2024.

According to the senior Russian diplomat, cooperation within BRICS is gaining momentum. "We are incrementally moving toward success. I am absolutely sure of that," he stressed. "I think that the summit in Kazan this October will be marked by new achievements in cooperation between BRICS countries."

Russia took over BRICS presidency on January 1, 2024. Established in 2006, the BRIC group was made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In 2011, South Africa joined the group, adding the "S" to the acronym. Now it has ten members after six new countries, including Argentina, were invited to join the association in August 2023, but Argentina refused from joining BRICS in late December, while the other five nations, namely Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia, became full-fledged members of BRICS from January 1, 2024.