“Over 30 countries expressed desire to join BRICS,” Russian President Putin at Plenary Session

Over 30 countries have expressed a desire to join the BRICS Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday addressing a meeting of the grouping.

Addressing world leaders at the Plenary Session of the 16th BRICS Summit, Putin said the group would discuss its expansion at the meeting but that it was important to strike a balance in any expansion, Reuters news agency reported.

During the session held at the Kazan Expo Center in the Rusian city of Kazan, Putin said, “Over 30 countries have expressed the desire to join BRICS.”

“It would be wrong to ignore the unprecedented interest of the countries of the Global South and East in strengthening contacts with BRICS,” Putin said.

“At the same time, it is necessary to maintain a balance and prevent a decrease in the effectiveness of the BRICS,” he said, adding that the grouping would also discuss “acute regional conflicts,” the Russian President was cited as saying by Reuters.

He further said that the group would discuss its expansion at the meeting, while keeping in mind the need to maintain efficiency, according to Reuters.

Later today, PM Modi is set to have a bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit.

The meeting in the capital of Tatarstan marks the first formal interaction between the two leaders in five years and follows the two countries reaching an agreement on resuming regular patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Meanwhile, Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, shared a joint photo of the leaders of the grouping, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was taken ahead of the Summit.

Taking to his X platform, Jaiswal wrote, “Stronger and united together for an inclusive and a multipolar world. A historic moment for the BRICS as the leaders take the first photo of the expanded BRICS family at the XVI BRICS Summit.”

Prime Minister Modi and UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan were seen interacting after the photo session.

A day before, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri highlighted that a focus area for the BRICS summit is establishing modalities and guidelines for implementing a partner country model. He further reiterated that the discussions between PM Modi and President Putin included a partner country model.

The remarks by Misri came while addressing a media briefing.

He said, “I think one of the focus areas is, I wouldn’t say the expansion of BRICS, but what we are discussing right now which is the modalities and guidelines for implementing a partner country model with BRICS. So that is one of the focus areas for this summit.”

He added, “With regard to discussions between Prime Minister and President Putin on some of the issues that are being discussed in BRICS on membership is a partner country model that is under discussion. The guidelines, modalities and the parameters of this model are under discussion. This is something that is still a work in progress at this point. So, I don’t want to go beyond my brief and comment on something that is still under discussion. Again, there might be developments later…”

BRIC, as a formal grouping, started after the meeting of the Leaders of Russia, India and China in St Petersburg on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006.

The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of UNGA in New York in 2006. The first BRIC Summit was held in Russia’s Yekaterinburg in 2009.

It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010. South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya in 2011. A further expansion of BRICS took place in 2024 with five new members – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.