NEW DELHI, August 25. /TASS/. The meeting of BRICS leaders in Johannesburg where an agreement was made to expand the group showed that it has become a major international organization, a prominent Indian expert told TASS.

"This was a successful summit. BRICS has agreed on the difficult question of expansion. They discussed this for a long time, there were different views, but they’ve arrived at the consensus," said Nandan Unnikrishnan, a Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF). "This is an achievement in a sense <…>. It also shows that BRICS has a certain value in the eyes of other countries, because more than 20 countries have sought membership," he added.

"After so many years of BRICS being in the public domain, it clearly has come of age and has become an international organization with recognition," Unnikrishnan said.

Ahead of the summit, Bloomberg and other Western media outlets reported that Brazil and India were pushing back against a rapid BRICS expansion. The Indian Foreign Ministry has rebuffed this allegation, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the summit that New Delhi had always supported the initiative to expand BRICS. According to Unnikrishnan, India had been cautious here, as it sought clarification on what criteria would be used to invite new members. India would not wish BRICS to become an anti-Western platform, with Western partners being its economic partners, therefore New Delhi sought to learn what criteria would be used for a potential expansion, but it was not against the process as such, he said.