NEW DELHI, June 2./TASS/. The BRICS group of nations is no longer an alternative to other international associations, but a bulwark of global politics, External Affairs Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday.

"BRICS is no longer an ‘alternative,’ it is an established feature of the global landscape. The message of reform that BRICS embodies must permeate the world of multilateralism," the top diplomat wrote on his Twitter page.

"The Friends of BRICS strongly support UNSC reform," Subrahmanyam Jaishankar went on to say. According to the foreign minister, "BRICS is not only an expression of multipolarity but of the many and diverse ways of meeting international challenges."

The BRICS group of nations seeks to build "a fairer, inclusive and open international architecture with sustainable development at its core," he tweeted. "Creating resilient and reliable supply chains are central to ensuring that no one is left behind," the foreign minister stressed.

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.

On Thursday, Cape Town hosted a meeting of top diplomats from the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) who, among other things, discussed the idea of the group’s expansion.