MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The study of mummies and the development of nuclear technologies can become areas of cooperation between Russian scientists and Egyptian researchers, Kurchatov Institute President Mikhail Kovalchuk said.

"Egyptology, mummies. For example, we have conducted unique studies of the Russian collection of mummies using scientific methods. <...> It is possible to develop [such cooperation] with Egypt. A nuclear power plant is being built in that country. So the field [of cooperation] is nuclear medicine, nuclear technologies, radiopharmaceuticals. <...> They also need personnel," Kovalchuk told reporters at the "Academic Partnership in the Interests of Peace, Mutual Development, and Prosperity" scientific forum held in Moscow as part of a two-day meeting of heads of BRICS science academies.

The BRICS group has now gone through two waves of expansion since its inception in 2006. First, in 2011, South Africa joined founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China. Then, in August 2023, six new members, including Argentina, were invited to join BRICS after the intergovernmental group’s summit in Johannesburg. However, in December 2023, the new Argentinian government of President Javier Milei announced that it had declined the invitation for the time being because it considered integration with BRICS impractical. The five new members - Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - began working as full-fledged BRICS member states since January 1.