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Sri Lanka eyes BRICS membership, seeks India’s backing — MFA

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has also received an invitation to take part in a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in Russia

NEW DELHI, May 21. /TASS/. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has confirmed the country’s plans to join BRICS.

"We will seek BRICS [membership]," he said in an interview with the ANI agency, adding that the government had created a subcommittee to look into the membership issue. "BRICS is a good organization, the more so as India is part of it," the minister said.

"India will be the first country we talk to, and we will ask it to support us on the way to joining BRICS," he noted.

Sabry has also received an invitation to take part in a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in Russia, he added. "So I hope that I will be there and we will assess it then. At the moment, if you ask me personally, I think that we should seriously look at BRICS," the minister said.

Since its inception in 2006, the BRICS has experienced two phases of expansion. In 2011, South Africa joined the original group, which included Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Argentina was one of six new members invited to join the association in August 2023, but it declined at the end of December. On January 1, 2024, five new members of the association began full-time work in BRICS - Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.

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