MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bangladesh files formal request to join BRICS

The note was filed after a meeting between Hasina and Ramaphosa in Geneva

According to the Dhaka Tribune, the government of Bangladesh last week filed a note applying for membership to the BRICS bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The application from Bangladesh, currently recognized as a “Friend of BRICS,” is expected to be discussed at the group's summit in South Africa in August.

After a meeting last Wednesday between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Shaykh Hasina and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Geneva, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Momen sent a formal letter to his South African counterpart expressing the Asian country's interest. South Africa currently holds the pro-tempore presidency of the alliance. Egypt has also shown its formal interest in joining the group.

The foreign ministers of the BRICS member states held a meeting in early June in Cape Town, attended by senior diplomats from several countries that want to join, such as Argentina, Iran, and Venezuela. Other countries interested in becoming BRICS members include Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Bahrain, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested on Friday that the reason so many countries are interested in joining the bloc is the effectiveness and authority of the BRICS alliance: “This is not the effect of Russia’s ongoing policies, it is the effect of the prospects for the development of such an integration association as BRICS,” Peskov said. He stressed that the group is “an association of countries that share a common approach aimed at developing relations based on benefit and mutual respect and not lecturing each other on how to live, on whom to rely and whom to follow.”

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