The BRICS alliance has held a meeting with 20 countries in attendance to discuss expansion and economic cooperation. Foreign Ministers of countries belonging to the BRICS bloc initiated a two-day meeting in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. Topics at hand include the upcoming expansion of the BRICS+, de-dollarization efforts, and building further economic and trade relations with one another.
The BRICS bloc inducted multiple new members into its numbers at the beginning of 2024. It is a long-standing expectation that the group will induct more members at its upcoming summit this fall. Thus, this meeting may be the first step in establishing clear-cut favorites to bring into the bloc next.
According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and foreign ministers from other member nations and over 20 countries from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa that are friendly to Russia will participate in the meeting. Participants are expected to discuss security and economic cooperation.
For much of the last year, the BRICS economic alliance has been developing its own economic alternatives. Since Following imposed sanctions in 2022, the bloc has sought to create an avenue for independence for global economic participants. This meant both the implementation of de-dollarization efforts and the establishment of local economic measures. With multiple countries interested in this plan, expansion of the bloc is widely expected to come at the next summit.
Recently, the Ambassador of Russia and China, Igor Morgulov, confirmed that 30 countries are looking to join BRICS after the 2024 summit. “There are about 30 countries wanting to join the BRICS family,” said the Russian ambassador. The country will look to use the meeting to gauge interested nations further and decide which could become the next members of BRICS+.