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Azerbaijan interested in joining BRICS — envoy to Moscow

"We have talked about it with our Russian colleagues, but this process and issue is in progress," he said when asked whether Baku has officially applied for joining the integration.

MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Azerbaijan would like to join BRICS, the republic’s Ambassador to Moscow Polad Bulbuloglu said in an interview with TASS before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Baku.

"There is a long queue of those willing to join BRICS. Azerbaijan has indeed stated such willingness. We have talked about it with our Russian colleagues, but this process and issue is in progress," he said when asked whether Baku has officially applied for joining the integration.

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 the one-year rotating chairmanship of BRICS on January 1, 2024. On Moscow’s watch, BRICS will carry out over 200 events covering a wide range of issues. The key event of Russia’s chairmanship will be the BRICS summit in October 2024 in Kazan, Tatarstan, in Russia’s Volga region.

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