BEIJING, September 11. /TASS/. Chinese authorities support the activities of Russia as the BRICS chair, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu in St. Petersburg.

"China supports the work of Russia as the BRICS chair," the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Wang Yi as saying. "We are ready to deepen mutual trust and cooperation among the member countries of the association through joint efforts," the top diplomat emphasized

According to the foreign minister, Beijing aims to turn BRICS into "the main channel for new forces to make their voices heard." According to Wang Yi, the association should play an important role as a platform for the solidarity and cooperation of states in the Global South.

The BRICS group has now gone through two waves of expansion since its inception in 2006. First, in 2011, South Africa joined founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China. Then, in August 2023, six new members, including Argentina, were invited to join BRICS after the intergovernmental group’s summit in Johannesburg. However, in December 2023, the new Argentinian government of President Javier Milei announced that it had declined the invitation for the time being because it considered integration with BRICS impractical. The five new members - Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - began working as full-fledged BRICS member states since January 1.

Russia has assumed the rotating BRICS chairmanship on January 1, 2024. It will last until the end of the year and will include more than 250 events. The main event will be the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024.