MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will on Wednesday address the participants of the first BRICS Sherpas and Sous-Sherpas meeting, which will be held in Moscow from January 30 to February 1 within the framework of Russia's chairmanship of the association.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov will address the participants at the session "BRICS Strategic Partnership as a Support for Multilateralism". The BRICS group has undergone two waves of expansion since its inception in 2006. In 2011, South Africa joined the original members, which included Brazil, Russia, India and China. In August 2023, six new members, including Argentina, were invited to join at once, but in late December it declined to join. Since January 1, 2024, ten countries have become members of BRICS.

Lavrov himself earlier pointed out that the association has "a very big future," given that about 30 countries are interested in rapprochement with BRICS. "Russia, which assumed the chairmanship of BRICS on January 1, will, of course, pay special attention to the newcomers, who we hope will organically fit into our joint work and thus contribute to the strengthening of positive trends not only within BRICS, but also in the international arena in the interests of the world majority," the top Russian diplomat emphasized.

Russia will chair BRICS in 2024 under the motto "Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security." According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the country plans to hold more than 200 events of various levels, which will be hosted by more than a dozen Russian cities. The BRICS foreign ministers will meet in Nizhny Novgorod in June, and the high-level summit will be held in Kazan in October.