Africa-Press – South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa was hailed for his “political mastery” after guiding his BRICS counterparts on who should be allowed in an expanded version of the bloc.
Speaking virtually on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned Ramaphosa’s sleek politics in his efforts to bring partners together to reach consensus.
“I would like to thank our SA friends for their efforts during our joint work. I would like to point that President Ramaphosa showed unique political mastery as we negotiated all the issues – even the BRICS expansion,” he said.
Putin said the matter of a common BRICS currency would be discussed further but emphasised that member states resolved to work on trading in local currencies.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the three-day summit achieved several positive outcomes.
“As I said, India has always fully supported the expansion of BRICS membership. The addition of new members will further strengthen BRICS as an organisation. It will give our shared efforts a new impact. I am pleased that our teams … agreed on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures,” he said.
He also thanked Ramaphosa for his leadership over the last three days.
From 1 January 2024, Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt will join the bloc.
Ramaphosa, who is the 2023 chairperson of BRICS, made the announcement on Thursday morning during a session, bringing the summit to a close.
“We value the interest of other countries in building a partnership with BRICS. We have tasked our foreign ministers to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries and report by the next summit,” Ramaphosa said.
On Wednesday, India and China expressed its support for the expansion of the BRICS bloc.
A key attraction of the bloc is the New Development Bank, created in 2015, with the aim of offering an alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Current BRICS members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – make up a quarter of the global economy, account for a fifth of global trade, and are home to 40% of the world’s population.
All leaders congratulated the new member countries.
Putin said relevant rules and procedures would be established for new members.
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