South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with fellow BRICS leaders President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, and Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a family photo, with delegates including six nations invited to join the BRICS group, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
The BRICS group of nations has added countries with conflicting principles threatening its consensus approach to decisions – a cornerstone of the formation – and the bloc’s relevance.
This is according to analysts, who warned that adding countries with major differences to BRICS would not benefit any member states.
On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that from 1 January 2024, Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt will join the bloc.
Get 14 days free to read all our investigative and in-depth journalism. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won’t be billed.
