The BRICS expansion is gaining steam with more countries willing to be a part of the alliance. BRICS has officially received an application this month from a new country expressing its interest in joining the bloc. The move indicates that developing nations find the alliance lucrative and the only group that can challenge the US dollar.
The new country that has formally submitted its application this month to join BRICS is Malaysia. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim met with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discussed the prospects. Russia is looking at BRICS expansion and could agree to Malaysia’s requests to join the bloc.
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BRICS Expansion: Malaysia Sends Application to Join the Bloc
Malaysia’s Prime Minister is seeking the help of Russia to push its application forward. Apart from BRICS expansion, the two also discussed the current situation of the Israel and Palestine war and emphasized the urgent need for a permanent ceasefire. In addition, the duo discussed the need for rapid humanitarian aid in Gaza and Palestine’s acceptance as a full member of the United Nations.
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“Malaysia has sent a letter of application to join the BRICS organization to Russia as the BRICS chairman, besides expressing openness to participate as a member country or strategic partner,” said Lavrov.
A total of 40 countries have expressed their interest to join BRICS in 2024. While 25 countries have formally submitted their applications, the other 15 have informally expressed their interest in joining the alliance. Therefore, BRICS has a plethora of options for expansion during the upcoming summit.
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The main agenda of the bloc is to advance the de-dollarization initiative by putting local currencies ahead. Read here to know how many sectors in the US will be affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. The expansion will help BRICS further the agenda to bring the US dollar down from the world’s reserve currency.