CAPE TOWN /South Africa/, June 2. /TASS/. Foreign Ministers Hossein Amir Abdollahian of Iran and Sergey Lavrov of Russia met on Friday on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) ministerial meeting in Cape Town, the Iranian foreign ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the sides discussed a range of issues of mutual interest on the bilateral, regional and international agenda.

The Friends of BRICS ministerial meeting was held earlier on Friday in Cape Town. It was attended by foreign ministers from the BRICS nations and 12 countries of the Global South who are interested in joining the group, namely Argentina, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, the Comoros, Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. The ministers discussed various kinds of cooperation.

On Thursday, Cape Town hosted a meeting of top diplomats from the BRICS countries who, among other things, discussed the idea of the group’s expansion. The ministers decided to continue work on the draft for this concept and instructed the Sherpas to submit it by the group’s summit on August 15.