BRICS has officially expanded its alliance, adding 13 new countries as partners, although they are not formal members.
The announcement was made during the BRICS Summit held in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24, 2024.
The target countries are Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
With this announcement, Nigeria officially joins BRICS as a partner country.
BRICS was originally an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, but was expanded in 2010 to include South Africa.
The group has since added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as full members, all of which attended this year’s summit as full participants.
The organization aims to promote trade, investment, development, security and cooperation between major emerging market economies.
The 2024 summit, themed “Strengthening multilateralism for fair global development and security,” is the bloc’s 16th annual meeting focused on strengthening economic integration with key emerging economies. It became.
A post from the block on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday read: “BRICS officially adds 13 new countries to the alliance as partner countries (but not full members).”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Eche Abuobe confirmed to The Punch on Thursday that Nigeria is a partner of the BRICS.
“Yes, it is true that Nigeria has joined BRICS as a partner,” he said.
Nigeria’s inclusion as a partner country is in line with an earlier statement made by Foreign Minister Yusuf Tughah in November 2023, which stated that Nigeria will leverage its large economy and population to announced its intention to officially join BRICS.
