BRICS, which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, accounts for 31.5% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) and 40% of the world's population.
There's an "unfortunate narrative" being developed that BRICS is anti-West, that BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North, and that is incorrect, Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to BRICS told the media.
"What we do seek is to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture," stated the diplomat as cited by media.
Since the bloc’s creation at a forum in St. Petersburg in 2006, BRICS has attracted many countries of the developing world. The group operates a development bank and a contingency reserve arrangement to support its members and other developing countries.
The communique of the June 2009 Yekaterinburg summit summarized the parties’ goals and interests: promoting "dialogue and cooperation among our countries in an incremental, proactive, pragmatic, open and transparent way," with the goal of "not only serving common interests of emerging market economies and developing countries, but also building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity."
Last month, Sooklal stated that around 30 countries had either filed an official application to become a member of the group or expressed a desire to do so.
The issue of expanding the BRICS grouping, which brings together the world's leading emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – will be on the agenda of the upcoming 15th BRICS summit, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 22-24.
