CARACAS, January 2. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro criticized the decision of his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei to refuse the country's accession to BRICS.

"By excluding Argentina from BRICS, he [Javier Milei] is acting against the Argentines. This is one of the most clumsy and stupid things that Miley has done against Argentina," Maduro said in a traditional interview with Le Monde diplomatique newspaper on January 1.

He added that such a decision "takes Argentina back to the 19th century."

Earlier, Nicolas Maduro had already harshly criticized the neoliberal political program and plans of the newly elected President of Argentina.

"The presidential elections in Argentina were won by far-right neo-fascism - the far right with a colonial project for Argentina, who intend to lead the neo-colonial project throughout Latin America and the Caribbean," Maduro said on the Venezolana de Television channel on November 21.

BRICS was formed in 2006 and initially included Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined the intergovernmental organization in 2011.

Five new members (Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia) formally became full-fledged members of the BRICS group, and commence joint work in that capacity, on January 1. Argentina was slated to become the sixth new member of the intergovernmental association, but on December 29 new Argentinian President Javier Milei officially notified the BRICS members that his country will decline the group’s invitation to join issued after its August 2023 summit in Johannesburg. In his letter, Milei said that he did not consider his country’s participation in the BRICS group to be appropriate at this time.