New Delhi: Pakistan has filed an application to join the BRICS grouping in 2024, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported Wednesday.
In an interview to the publication, Pakistan’s newly-appointed ambassador to Russia Muhammad Khalid Jamali said his country was counting on Russia’s assistance during the membership process. Russia has the presidency of the grouping in 2024.
“Pakistan would like to be part of this important organisation and we are in process of contacting member countries for extending support to Pakistan’s membership in general and Russian Federation in particular,” TASS quoted the ambassador as saying.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded after 13 years this August when it agreed to take in six nations as new members from 1 January, 2024. The decision was announced at the grouping’s three-day summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that these countries — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates — would “give new energy and direction to the grouping”.
The bloc was first founded as an informal four-nation club in 2009, South Africa came on board a year later.
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