The number of countries expressing interest to join the BRICS alliance is growing. An equal number of countries are ready to accept the BRICS currency for global trade and sideline the U.S. dollar. South African ambassador Anil Sooklal confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that the BRICS is receiving both formal and informal applications.
BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The bloc of five nations will combinedly decide on the formation of a new currency at the summit in August. The 15th BRICS summit will be held in South Africa’s Johannesburg.
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44 New Countries Ready To Join & Accept BRICS Currency a Month Before Summit
The latest update provided on Thursday shows that 44 countries are interested to join the BRICS alliance. While 22 countries have formally applied to join the bloc, another 22 nations have informally expressed interest to join BRICS.
“Twenty-two countries have formally approached BRICS, an equal number of informal approaches,” confirmed Sooklal.
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The ambassador indicated that new countries are trying to be a part of the alliance for over a year. “This knocking on the door is nothing new,” he said.
Sooklal explained that Argentina and many other South American countries have formally applied for membership. “Argentina, all the major Global South countries,” have applied for membership, he said.
Other powerful economies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also applied to be a part of BRICS. “They are quite weighty countries,” explained Sooklal.
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The summit will also decide on BRICS expansion and the group will most likely be BRICS+ by the year end. The development will give the alliance a boost making it financially stronger to take on the U.S. dollar. Read here to know how many financial sectors in the U.S. will be affected if the BRICS launch their new currency next month.
