BUENOS AIRES, October 22. /TASS/. BRICS countries need to provide membership to new counties in stages, Celso Amorim, special advisor to the Brazilian president, said.
"We [BRICS members] need to move forward in stages. There is no point in providing membership to numerous countries because it would only create another Group of 77 (a United Nations coalition of developing countries - TASS)," he told the CNN Brasil TV channel.
According to the politician, BRICS nations need "to carefully consider membership for new countries" and assess the contribution that potential members could make to the group’s activities. "There needs to be a strategic vision of how BRICS should expand," Amorim noted. "It’s crucial to keep the tense international situation in mind, which may escalate into a world war. This is why the membership criteria are more important than a specific country," he added.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in stable and reliable prospects for BRICS, saying that the group’s members shared common values.
The BRICS group was 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. Russia took over the one-year rotating BRICS chairmanship on January 1, 2024. It includes over 200 activities on a wide range of issues. The BRICS summit in Kazan is the main event of the Russian chairmanship of the group.