![Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva participates in the opening of the 26th Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum in Brasilia, Brazil, 29 June 2023 [Mateus Bonomi - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/AA-20230630-31557937-31557936-BRAZILIAN_PRESIDENT_LUIZ_INACIO_LULA_DA_SILVA_PARTICIPATES_IN_THE_OPENING_OF_THE_26TH_MEETING_OF_THE_SAO_PAULO_FORUM_IN_BRASILIA.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has expressed his support for more countries joining the BRICS group.
Lula said in the capital, Brasilia, yesterday that he supports countries such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joining the group.
BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is due to hold a summit in Johannesburg from 22-24 August.
He also described the seven leading industrialised countries as a "club" that should not exist, considering that its form in terms of geopolitical affairs is outdated. The UK, US, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Germany make up the group of Western industrialised countries, known as the G7.
Some 22 countries have "formally" asked to join the BRICS group, while an equal number has informally expressed interest in joining the bloc, South Africa announced last month.
It has previously been reported that BRICS is discussing including Saudi Arabia and Iran into the bloc. Along with Riyadh and Tehran, Algeria also applied join BRICS last year, with Turkiye and Egypt expected to become additional members soon.
READ: BRICS endorses the defunct two-state compromise
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
Spotted an error on this page? Let us know
