According to an interview with Pakistan’s newly appointed Ambassador to Russia Muhammad Khalid Jamali, Pakistan has applied for membership with the BRICS group of Nations Union in 2024, reported Russian news agency, TASS.
The league of developed and developing nations originally consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) and was formed in 2010. At its last summit in South Africa in October the BRICS group decided to invite six more countries to join their alliance.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members of BRICS. Their membership will take effect January 1, 2024.
The diplomat for Pakistan has declared that Pakistan has already applied for membership to join BRICS, TASS reported. Jamali confirmed that Pakistan intends to participate within the group under Russian chairmanship, in 2024.
“Pakistan would like to be part of this important organization and we are in process of contacting member countries for extending support to Pakistan’s membership in general and Russian Federation in particular,” the ambassador added.
Russia last chaired the group in 2020, before India took over the role in January 2021 and held the presidency until December 2021. The theme and approach for India’s BRICS Chairship was ‘BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’.
BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries in the world, representing around 41% of the global population, around 24% of the global GDP, and around 16% of global trade.
Ahead of the upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, southwest Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in early October that BRICS plans to agree on a list of candidates for partner-state status.
Ryabkov earlier stated that during the Russian chairmanship of the BRICS group, special attention will be paid to expanding the “circle of BRICS friends,” including in Latin America.
“We should let more countries join the BRICS family to pool wisdom and efforts to make global governance more just and equitable,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
