VIENNA, August 25. /TASS/. The expansion of BRICS marks a strategic success for both Russia and China, Daniela Schwarzer, an executive board member at Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation, said in an interview with Austria’s Der Standard newspaper.

"The expansion of the BRICS group is a strategic success for China and Russia. [With the addition of] Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [BRICS is] being joined by three of the world’s largest oil and gas exporters," the political analyst said. According to her, Western leaders "must understand this enlargement as an attempt to establish a serious counterweight to the G7, whose share of the global GDP is steadily declining."

"The Europeans urgently need to rethink their Africa policy" in the context of the EU’s competition with Russia and China for influence on the African continent. Europe has lost its prestige in Africa, Schwarzer believes. She cited what she said was the Western countries’ "selfish" handling of vaccine distribution during the pandemic. Also, she said, while the EU, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, "ties its lending to principles of good governance," China grants loans to African countries "without such conditions."

The 15th BRICS Summit was held on August 22-24 in Johannesburg under the chairmanship of South Africa.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at a post-summit news conference that Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would join BRICS on January 1, 2024. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said that the BRICS leaders had agreed upon the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for accepting new member states as the group seeks to expand further. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that "the weight, prestige and role of an individual candidate country and, of course, its position in the international arena" were taken into account in decision-making on expanding BRICS. An updated list of candidate countries for BRICS membership will be prepared for consideration at the group’s next annual summit, which will take place under Russia’s one-year chairmanship.