South Africa’s Ruling Party Advocates BRICS Expansion – Media
Staff worker stands behinds national flags of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India to tidy the flags ahead of a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017.
In 2010, the BRIC bloc became BRICS after South Africa joined Brazil, Russia, India and China as one of the world’s major developing nations. The organization has a rotating chairmanship and since joining the African country has filled that position twice, in 2013 and 2018.In its role chairing the BRICS in 2023, South Africa should strive to expand the group, the country’s ruling party – the African National Congress (ANC) – announced in a draft policy document cited by the media.”The ANC and ANC-led government should support the expansion of BRICS by admitting additional members on the basis of formally agreed criteria, principles, and values,” said the party’s commission on international relations.The party underlined the importance of providing an alternative to the influence of “hegemonic developed countries in the global North”.The ANC also criticized NATO for supplying arms to Ukraine and condemned “punitive and cruel sanctions” against such countries as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and Zimbabwe.South Africa assumed chairmanship of the bloc on 1 January, taking over from China. According to officials, the African country will host a summit as well as several other meetings and joint events with fellow members of the organization.It was reported in 2022 that a number of countries – including Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates – had expressed an interest in joining BRICS.As for Indonesia, the country’s ambassador told Sputnik that his state is currently weighing the “advantages and disadvantages of becoming a member of BRICS”.BRICS is an informal grouping of the biggest developing countries, which, combined, account for around 27 percent of the planet’s land, more than 41 percent of the world’s population and more than 26 percent of the world’s GDP.
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