BERLIN, October 13. /TASS/. Serbia views BRICS membership as a real alternative to joining the European Union, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vulin said.

"Naturally, Serbia will be present in Kazan (at the BRICS summit - TASS)," he said in an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung newspaper ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit due to be held in Berlin on October 14.

"It would be irresponsible of us not to look at all the opportunities, including BRICS membership. If BRICS is attractive for other countries, for instance the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey, why should it be different for Serbia? So, there is no doubt that BRICS has become a real alternative to the European Union," he noted.

When asked who the future belongs to - the West or other countries, the Serbian deputy prime minister said, "The future lies in the values of entire humankind, regardless of the geographical East or geographical West." "We, the Serbs, believe in traditional values - God, the nation, the family. People all around the world believe in that," he added.

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 on October 22-24, 2024 being the central one.