BEIJING, February 1. /TASS/. The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) will be expanded by adding new member states against the background of multidirectional processes in the balancing of power of the East and West, Head of the Scientific Committee of the Center of Russian Studies at Beijing Normal University, Professor Li Xing told a TASS correspondent on Wednesday.
"Nowadays, a multitude of watershed changes is underway worldwide. Overall, parallel processes of the East getting stronger and the West getting weaker are being observed and vice versa. Thus, a trend toward multipolarity is emerging as well as the specifics of the transitional period," the expert said. "The emergence of BRICS precisely reflects these processes. So this union didn’t appear by accident: it has a vitality and it is bound to expand by means of new members."
As Li Xing specified, the emergence of BRICS indicates the rise of the East as well as a turning point in the distribution of power between the West and Eastern countries. "China, Russia, and also possibly India all play an important role," the expert stressed. "Of course, Brazil and South Africa are also important players on the international stage. Some other regional powers can also play an important role."
According to him, strategic interaction between the member states of this international union has global significance. He asserted that this is a complex process because history "does not develop in a linear fashion and has many twists and turns" while the events occurring worldwide "often are of unpredictable nature."
Li Xing pointed to the primary importance of maintaining socio-economic progress. "Even despite the fact that all countries are developing not quite the same way, for any nation during any era the development factor should come first," he concluded.
As the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, Moscow aspires to establish new interaction mechanisms in various spheres with the countries that have not joined the West’s anti-Russian campaign. Its statement noted that Russia would expand interaction with its BRICS partners as well as with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and with "other countries displaying independence in international affairs.".