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The BRICS group of nations is formulating criteria for countries wishing to join the bloc and may decide by the end of this year on whether to admit new members and who those states will be, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor has said.
South Africa is the 2023 chair of BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. A number of countries had approached the previous chair, China, about joining, she said.
"The world is changing in very worrying ways. Countries are searching for like-minded partners around the world," she said at a press conference in Johannesburg on Thursday. "Many countries are finding that the approach of BRICS is one they would like to take part" in, she said.
By expanding BRICS, the group could increase its influence as a counterweight to institutions and blocs backed by developed economies such as the US and members of the European Union. It was originally envisaged as a group of expanding emerging economies. With some of its members, including South Africa and Russia, struggling to grow, admitting new nations with even weaker economies could erode the group’s clout.
While the bloc accounts 42% of the world’s population, its members have less than 15% of the voting rights in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, according to the Institute for Security Studies.
"We are now having to look at this very, very significant demand and interest in expansion," Pandor said. "Toward the end of South Africa’s charge we will be able to indicate whether we expand and who will become part of a BRICS plus or whatever that formation might be."
