CAIRO, October 8. /TASS/. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will take part in the BRICS summit in Kazan due to be held from September 22 to 24, Kazan Federal University Rector Lenar Safin said.

"Yes, he will be in Kazan," he said in reply to a corresponding question from TASS. He also said he would be ready to receive the Egyptian leader and show him about the university, "if the Egyptian side wants that."

Safin is currently visiting Cairo to take part in the ceremony of the beginning of a new academic year at the Kazan Federal University’s Cairo Branch.

However, the Egyptian side has not yet officially confirmed el-Sisi’s participation in the upcoming BRICS summit.

Established in 2006, the BRIC group was made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In 2011, South Africa joined the group, adding the "S" to the acronym. Now it has ten members after six new countries, including Argentina, were invited to join the association in August 2023, but Argentina refused from joining BRICS in late December, while the other five nations, namely Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia, became full-fledged members of BRICS from January 1, 2024.

Russia took over the BRICS’ year-long presidency on January 1, 2024. Russia’s presidency features more than 250 various events, with a BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 being the central one.

According to Russian presidential aide for international affairs Yury Ushakov, Moscow has invited 36 foreign leaders to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan. Eighteen have already accepted the invitation. Along with the leaders of the BRICS nations, among those invited are the leaders of the CIS countries and of the countries chairing influential regional integration associations in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, as well as heads of countries seeking either BRICS membership or being its cooperation partner.