BUDAPEST, January 12. /TASS/. Argentina’s decision to reject the opportunity to join BRICS will not affect the further integration of the intergovernmental group, which will continue to expand due to strong interest among many countries, TASS learned from foreign diplomats attending the "BRICS and Friends" reception hosted on Thursday by Russian Ambassador to Hungary Yevgeny Stanislavov to mark the New Year’s holiday, which also coincided with the launch of Moscow’s turn at holding the rotating BRICS chairmanship in 2024.

Commenting on the recent decision by new Argentinian President Javier Milei to turn down the group’s invitation to Buenos Aires to join BRICS, Susan Kleebank, the Brazilian ambassador to Budapest, said that, "it would not affect the integration as it is strong itself." "BRICS is a very firm and consolidated organization," the diplomat added.

In turn, South African Ambassador to Hungary Gangumzi Mattias Tsengiwe said it was entirely possible that the issue of Argentina’s membership could be revisited in the long run "depending on what government holds power" in the South American country. However, he noted, the critical thing is that "the expansion of BRICS is a process that can hardly be stopped." "The expansion is a very important principle" underlying integration-related activities, the South African diplomat stressed.

The BRICS group, established in 2006, first expanded in 2011, when South Africa joined the four founding nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The decision to invite six more countries to join BRICS, including Argentina, was made at the group’s summit in Johannesburg in August 2023. However, Argentina declined the invitation to join in late December. Five new members (Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia) formally became full-fledged members of the BRICS group on January 1. Russia assumed BRICS’ one-year rotating chairmanship on the same day.