JOHANNESBURG, August 23. /TASS/. Chinese leader Xi Jinping pushed his allies in the BRICS grouping, also encompassing Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, for faster action to admit new members as he addressed an open plenary session of the BRICS summit.

"I am pleased to see the developing countries’ great enthusiasm about cooperation with BRICS. Lots of developing countries have applied to join the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and we should use cooperation in BRICS for an accelerated expansion, so that as many countries as possible could join the BRICS family, to gain wisdom and work together to move global governance in a fairer and saner direction," Xi said.

He believes that what BRICS has been doing is in line with international morality and benefits the people.

This association "will undoubtedly go far and make a great contribution to world peace and development," Xi said.

The current BRICS summit is being held in South Africa on August 22-24. Anil Sooklal, the republic's Sherpa in BRICS, said earlier that about 30 states had shown interest in joining the association. Some of them, including Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt and Ethiopia, have submitted formal applications.