Answering a question about Russia's approach to Iran's interest in joining BRICS, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Vestnik Kavkaza that Moscow can only welcome its Middle Eastern partners' interest in this association.
"The 14th BRICS Summit was successfully held from June 23 to 24, it was held as part of the BRICS+ high-level development dialogue. It demonstrated a great demand from emerging countries to deepen engagement with this group," she said during the weekly press conference.
"Everyone, including our country, highly appreciated the participation of the Iranian President in this meeting. The final declaration of the summit set a course for the further development of cooperation between the BRICS states and interested developing countries in the BRICS-Outreach and BRICS+ formats," Maria Zakharova recalled.
"Also, at the suggestion of China, discussions on the expansion of the association have intensified. We support this initiative, which we have repeatedly stated. BRICS will have to decide on the modalities of this process, agree on principles, criteria, standards and relevant procedures. Then the members will need to agree on the expansion, after which the group will be able to start discussing potential new participants," the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
BRICS International Forum President Purnima Anand said today that Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia could "very soon" join BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
