MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. No country that received an invitation to become a BRICS partner state has rejected it, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS.

"As of today, the list is not closed yet; no invitations have been rejected and the [Russian] chairmanship expects to make the list public before the end of the year," he said in response to a question. "All participants to a meeting of sherpas and sous-sherpas in Yekaterinburg were informed about it. Everyone agrees that this is the right path," Ryabkov added.

"The matter is that not all the potential partners have completed their internal procedures. So if we release an incomplete list now, we may put those who haven’t yet completed their procedures in an awkward position. That said, we need to have patience. Once again, no invitations have been rejected," the senior Russian diplomat stressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said following the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan that the list of the group’s partner states had been agreed on. However, the list wasn’t made public. The Russian leader explained that first, invitations would be sent to those countries and once they gave a positive response, the countries’ names would be announced.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became members of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on January 1, 2024. Brazil will take over the BRICS chairmanship next year.