Iran is officially in the BRICS group

The BRICS economic group announced that the countries of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia will join this group as of today, January 1, 2024.

According to a report by the Iranian Mehr Agency, today, Monday, January 1, 2024, the representative of South Africa in BRICS, Anil Suklal, stated that the new members are supposed to participate in the next meeting of this economic group in Moscow, January 30 of this year.

New countries

In a dialogue between the representative of the South African countries with the American Bloomberg Agency, the current members, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in August 2023, called on six new countries to join this group, so that some of the largest energy producing countries and the largest countries are brought together. Energy consumption under BRICS.

The BRICS group was established in 2009 with the participation of China, Brazil, India and Russia, and South Africa joined it in 2010.

Of these six countries, only Argentina rejected the invitation to join, because the country's new president, Javier Milli, withdrew the request of former Argentine president Alberto Fernandez to join BRICS after assuming the presidency.

In this context, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced last December 26 the desire of about 30 countries to join BRICS.

On the other hand, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Togar said last November: “Nigeria, as the most populous country in Africa, is looking forward to joining BRICS within the next two years.”

Iranian hopes

The Tehran government is betting on benefiting from BRICS economic cooperation to solve many of its political and economic crises. The spokesman for the Iranian House of Industry and Commerce, Ruhollah Latifi, revealed in September 2023 that trade exchange between Tehran and the current and new BRICS members amounted to about 37 million tons worth $25.1 billion within five months, according to the official news agency (IRNA).

Also, after Iran became a full member of the Shanghai Organization, and Saudi Arabia became a dialogue partner in this forum, the BRICS group has now become the second multilateral platform that brings together Riyadh and Tehran, which enhances hopes for the stability of the political and economic relationship between Iran and the Gulf states.

Supporting the development axis

Also, Iran faces severe economic sanctions imposed on it by the West, which prompts its interest in joining the BRICS group as a window to freedom from the cycle of sanctions and their harsh impact on the Iranian economy and interior.

Likewise, Iran’s accession to the “BRICS+” economic group, along with the founding countries and the Arab countries joining with it, supports the North-South Economic Corridor, on which Iran is betting its strategic development plan, so that it becomes a link between northern countries such as Russia and China, and southern countries such as India and the Emirates. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and South Africa.