MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil would like to see Argentina join BRICS, FM says

The issue will have to be discussed at the next BRICS summit because Lula's upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping will be of a bilateral nature, Vieira also explained

Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told the website Metrópoles that his country would like to have Argentina join the BRICS group, but insisted that for such a move to happen it would depend on the consensus from the other bloc members (Russia, India, China, and South Africa).

The “enlargement of the BRICS has been talked about, especially in the press. Before moving or not to the enlargement phase, we will have to go through a consensual discussion among the five countries that make up the group,” Vieira said.

“We have to see what the position of each one is. If this were to go ahead, with the expansion position, Brazil would have candidates to support. But, as I said, there has to be a joint decision,” he added.

Vieira served as Brazilian Ambassador to Buenos Aires between 2004 and 2010.

Asked if Iran also joining BRICS would be on Brazilian President Luiz Inàcio Lula Da Silva's upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Vieira insisted that “above all” it will be “about Argentina,” which he defined as “an important country, a great partner of Brazil, [and] a strategic neighbor.”

“It has already been said, on more than one occasion, that Argentina would be the candidate defended by Brazil in an eventual enlargement of the BRICS,” added Vieira, who also pointed out that the meeting between Lula and Xi will be mainly of a “bilateral” nature. Hence, Argentina's joining would have to be “addressed at the next BRICS summit” because this “issue does not fit now.”