A group called BRICS, made up of five countries, is getting bigger. They asked six other countries to join them. The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, is leading a meeting for this group in Johannesburg. He said Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will start being part of the group in January.
The leader of China, Xi Jinping, thinks this is a big deal. He said, “This is a historic moment. It shows that BRICS countries really want to work together and grow.”
This idea to add more countries has been talked about for over a year. They discussed it a lot during the three-day meeting. Mohammad Jamshidi from Iran said, “This is a big deal for Iran. Now we’re a part of BRICS, and that’s a big win for our foreign relations.”
The leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is happy about this news. He said, “We’re glad to be part of this important group.” He wants everyone to work together for the good of the world.
The leader of Egypt, El-Sisi, said, “We want to work together with the other countries in the group and the new countries joining. We want to help each other with our economies and talk about the problems our countries face.”
The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, thinks this is a great moment for his country. The President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, said, “This is a new step in bringing countries together.”
The BRICS group already has five countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. They all like the idea of more countries joining. But they’re not all agreeing on how many and how fast. The last time they added a country was in 2010. South Africa joined then. Now, with these new countries, the BRICS group represents around 40% of the world’s people and over a quarter of the world’s money.
This change is important. It’s like trying to make the world’s setup more balanced, with more countries having a say in big decisions. Countries from the Global South are becoming more important on the world stage.