MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. BRICS is attracting an increasing number of like-minded countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"BRICS is attracting an ever increasing number of supporters and like-minded countries that share its underlying principles, namely, sovereign equality, respect for the chosen path of development, mutual consideration of interests, openness, consensus, the aspiration to form a multipolar international order and a fair global financial and trade system, and pursuit of collective solutions to top challenges of our time," he pointed out in a statement on the start of Russia's BRICS Chairmanship, published on the Kremlin website.

"We will consider the degree to which many other countries, about 30 of them, are prepared to join the BRICS multidimensional agenda in one form or another. To this end, we will start working on the modalities of a new category of BRICS partner country," Putin added.