NIZHNY NOVGOROD, June 11. /TASS/. The number of countries interested in working jointly with BRICS has increased to almost 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting in Nizhny Novgorod.

"In accordance with agreements from last year’s BRICS summit in Johannesburg, we surveyed work done on coordinating modalities for a new category of BRICS partner countries being introduced. The number of countries interested in joining our work is steadily growing and has already approached thirty," he said.

According to Lavrov, all BRICS colleagues realize that such requests must be given their due. "And we will continue working in this direction," the top diplomat assured. "We will prepare relevant recommendations for the group’s summit slated to be held in Kazan on October 22-24."