BRICS expansion faces eleventh hour hurdle as divisions persist
A deal to expand the BRICS group of leading developing countries appeared stuck in eleventh hour negotiations at a leaders summit on Wednesday, threatening to undermine the bloc's ambition to give the "Global South" more clout in world affairs.
Agreement to expand BRICS - currently Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - could allow dozens of interested nations to seek admission as Beijing and Moscow push to forge it into a viable counterweight to the West.
The debate over enlargement has topped the agenda at the three-day summit taking place in Johannesburg. And while all BRICS members have publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there were divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.
Summit host South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor speaking on Wednesday said BRICS leaders had agreed on mechanisms for considering new members.
"We have agreed on the matter of expansion," she told a radio station run by her ministry.
"We have a document that we've adopted which sets out guidelines and principles, processes for considering countries that wish to become members of BRICS...That's very positive."
However, a BRICS member country official with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters that the leaders had not yet signed a finalised admission framework.
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