- Saturday, April 27, 2024
The Indian PM said admitting Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as new entrants will give the platform energy and direction.
By: Shubham Ghosh
WITH the five-nation BRICS deciding to admit six new countries as its members, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (24) said in Johannesburg, South Africa, that the grouping’s modernisation and expansion is a message that all global institutions need to change considering the demand of time.
India has been seeking reform in the United Security Council’s permanent membership but while four of the five permanent members — US, UK, France and Russia have supported it, China has been opposing it.
At a media briefing along with the fellow BRICS leaders in the South African city which hosted the three-day 15th summit, Modi said admitting Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as new entrants will give the platform energy and direction.
The decision on expansion of the grouping, something which was being speculated, was announced by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa at the end of the summit.
He said the new six members will become part of the grouping with effect from January 1, 2024.
In his remarks, Modi said the decision to expand the grouping will also further strengthen the belief of many countries in a multipolar world.
Modi made the remarks in his media statement in presence of Ramaphosa, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made his media statement through video conference.
In his remarks, Modi said India has always fully supported expansion of BRICS and believed that addition of new members will further strengthen the grouping.
“I am happy that our teams have together agreed on guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for expansion of BRICS,” he said.
“I am happy that many positive outcomes came out of three days’ of deliberations,” he added.
The prime minister said he was confident that “we would be able to give new dynamism to BRICS by working with new member countries of the grouping.” Referring to countries being admitted as new BRICS members, Modi said India has had very deep and historic relations with all of them.
(PTI)
