RIYADH, September 9. /TASS/. Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has been invited to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has an invitation [to the BRICS summit]. And at out today’s meeting, we discussed this with him, discussed preparations for the summit. I am convinced that this will be a successful event," he said after a meeting of the Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council Strategic Dialogue.
The Russian minister recalled that Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud had taken part in a BRICS ministerial meeting in June.
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.
Russia took over the BRICS’ year-long presidency on January 1, 2024. Russia’s presidency features more than 250 various events, with a BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 being the central one.