ST. PETERSBURG, September 19. /TASS/. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has received an invitation to participate in the Kazan BRICS summit, Cuban Ambassador to Moscow Julio Antonio Garmendia Pena told TASS.

"The president received an invitation. The decision has not yet been made," the diplomat said on the sidelines of the Fourth Eurasian Women’s Forum, replying to a question on the matter.

He noted that "there will definitely be a delegation." "Since, of course, we support this event and what Russia is doing on this track," the envoy said.

TASS is the forum’s general information partner. The Eurasian Women’s Forum is organized by the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s parliament) and the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member Nations.

About BRICS

The group now includes ten countries. The BRICS group has seen two waves of expansion since its emergence in 2006. In 2011, South Africa joined the original membership, which included Brazil, Russia, India and China. In August 2023, six new members, including Argentina, were invited to join the association. Buenos Aires changed its mind in late December last year. Five new members, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia, officially joined the group on January 1, 2024.

Russia assumed the one-year rotating chairmanship of the BRICS intergovernmental group on January 1, 2024. On Moscow’s watch, BRICS will carry out over 250 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.