MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Thirteen countries have shown an interest in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and they have put forward promising and strategic ideas for the group’s development in the future, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui said in a special interview with TASS on Saturday.

"Not only did leaders of the BRICS five [nations] took part in three BRICS+ events, but also the leaders of 13 other developing countries. By focusing on such issues as the improvement of the BRICS mechanism, global governance, the joint fight against the pandemic and economic recovery, the participants achieved some innovative and important institutional results and put forward promising and strategic ideas to address the urgent challenges facing humanity and the future development of BRICS," he noted.

Argentina and Iran in June 2022 applied to join BRICS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said these countries are worthy candidates for joining BRICS and the preparatory process for expanding the organization has already been started.