NEW DELHI, October 14. /TASS/. Sri Lanka plans to officially apply for BRICS membership at the association’s summit in Kazan and has already asked its members to support its bid, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said.

"Sri Lanka has decided to file an application to join BRICS and the [BRICS] New Development Bank. I have already issued letters to my counterparts in the BRICS member nations asking them for support," the ministry quoted him as saying.

According to the top Lankan diplomat, neither he nor the country’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, will be able to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan because of the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country. "Sri Lanka will be represented by a deputy foreign minister, who will officially lodge an application for membership," Herath said without disclosing the official’s name.

Lankan media said however that the country would be represented by First Deputy Foreign Minister Aruni Wijewardane.

"We view BRICS as an association for efficient partnership in the interests of the implementation of mutually beneficial cooperation, peace and development through encouraging comprehensive multipolarity within the UN Charter," Herath stressed.

On October 1, Russian Ambassador to Colombo Levan Dzhagaryan handed over to Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, an invitation to the BRICS summit in Kazan.

Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka will be held on November 14.

About upcoming summit in Kazan

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 to join 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.

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.