BRICS To Double Its Members; Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates To Be Added (Photo on X Hua Chunying 华春莹 @SpokespersonCHN )

The BRICS bloc, an international organization of emerging market nations that originally came into existence in 2006 as BRIC with founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and then South Africa joining the bloc one year later in 2010 renaming ‘BRICS’ is now set to double its members with the inclusion of are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The membership expansion comes at a time when the Western powers are seeking their dominance in global affairs. The presiding head of the BRICS, Vladimir Putin confirmed the expansion of the bloc. Putin also noted the growing influence of the BRICS market nations in international affairs, pointing out that these nations share the bloc’s common values. The principles of the Bloc include sovereign equality, openness, consensus and a fair global financial and trading system according to the aspiration for a multipolar international order.

Argentina too had expressed its interest in joining the bloc from January 1 after the approval of the bloc’s leaders. But the country finally decided not to join BRICS as of now.

However, the Russian president and the presiding head of the bloc Putin said that Russia’s chairmanship of the 2024 BRICS will stress boosting positive and productive collaboration with all the stakeholders.

The entry of some of the Middle Eastern nations comes amid the rising regional tensions in the area. Two of the main forces that pushed for the expansion of the bloc were Saudi Arabia and China, aiming to push away the West influence in the region.