SHANGHAI, August 17. /TASS/. The expansion of the BRICS mechanism will allow it to increase its relevance in global governance, but consensus on the criteria for accepting new members remains important, Niu Haibin, the director of the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies told TASS on Thursday.

"The question is whether there is consensus on this among the current BRICS member states, whether there is consensus on the criteria for new members to join in, and whether there is consensus on the scale of expansion. This is very important. If the BRICS countries achieve the expansion of the group’s membership, this will further increase the representation of the BRICS countries in the Global South, as well as increase the importance of the BRICS countries in global governance," the expert said, pointing out that this issue would be one of the most important ones at the upcoming summit in South Africa.

The issue of new members joining the BRICS mechanism, he believes, is very complicated, given the large number of applications from different countries and their potential contribution to the association. Therefore, according to the expert, the leaders at the summit will seek consensus on this issue. For the time being there is none. However, as Niu pointed out, BRICS needs to expand to a certain extent.

At the moment, the expert said, BRICS is represented in key regions of the world from the point of view of its member countries, but the coverage is not yet complete. However, for example, there is still the Middle East, West Asia, and North Africa, where the BRICS mechanism is not yet represented.

"I believe that there are still emerging market countries that can join the BRICS mechanism, which may consist of, for example, 10 or 8-9 countries. Should this happen, emerging markets and developing countries will be better represented in the group," said Niu, pointing to good opportunities in case such countries as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt joined BRICS.

At the same time, the expert believes that a number of potential member-countries are states where the political situation depends on elections. Different parties and different political forces, after coming to power, may change their attitude to BRICS.

"Therefore, I think the first thing that is needed to form an internal consensus among the BRICS leaders is to be ready to expand the membership to a limited extent," he said, adding that in any case it was necessary to work out common criteria for accepting new members.

BRICS summit and expansion prospects

China proposed to launch the BRICS enlargement process in May 2022. After the summit in Beijing in June of the same year, the preparatory process began. Shortly before that, the first applications were received from Argentina and Iran. On June 1, 2023, the BRICS foreign ministers met in Cape Town, in southwestern South Africa, to consider the concept of the group's expansion, but decided that the document should be revised. The next day, a Friends of BRICS meeting was held, attended by the foreign ministers of the community's member countries and 12 other states in the Global South, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The South Africa-chaired BRICS summit will be held in Johannesburg on August 22-24. According to the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, the BRICS leaders will discuss the expansion of the organization. She added that 23 countries had submitted formal applications.