NEW DELHI, October 8. /TASS/. Sri Lanka plans to submit an official request for BRICS membership at the group’s upcoming summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the South Asian nation’s government spokesperson Vijitha Herath said.

"We hope to request BRICS membership for Sri Lanka, and during the recent meeting with the Indian foreign minister, we sought India's support for our membership," the Newsfirst news website quoted him as saying.

The cabinet spokesperson also said that Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake would not be able to attend the summit so "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will participate at the official level."

According to Colombo Gazette, the country will be represented by Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said in May that his country planned to seek BRICS membership and would request India’s support. On October 1, Russian Ambassador to Colombo Levan Dzhagaryan handed Moscow’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan to the country’s president.

The BRICS group has expanded twice since being created in 2006. South Africa joined the four founding nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - in 2011. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became BRICS members on January 1, 2024. This year, Russia holds the rotating BRICS chairmanship, which will culminate in the group’s summit in Kazan on October 22-24.

According to Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, Moscow invited 36 foreign leaders to attend the Kazann summit and 18 of them have confirmed their participation. He specified that apart from the group’s nine member states, the leaders of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations had also been invited, along with the heads of the countries holding the chairmanship of influential regional organizations in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Northeast Asia, as well as the heads of the countries that seek either BRICS membership or cooperation with the group.