Since the BRICS Group announced the expansion, many countries have expressed strong interest, and the recent expansion of the BRICS countries has brought another major positive news, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, three countries have also expressed interest in joining.
The president of the BRICS International Forum, Punima Anand, personally confirmed the news, and she was optimistic that these countries had expressed interest in joining and intended to submit applications for accession, which would obviously enhance the influence of the BRICS countries in the world.
In addition to Punima Anand, Li Kexin, director of the Department of International Economic Affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also talked about this matter before, and Director Li revealed at the time that Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Argentina were actively applying to join the BRICS Group, which shows that the expansion of the BRICS does have a strong attraction for many countries, and the "BRICS" began to play a "magnet" effect.
During the 12th BRICS Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting and the 14th BRICS Leaders' Summit held in June this year, the BRICS countries unanimously agreed to improve the BRICS expansion process and proposed the concept of "BRICS +". In fact, although the BRICS group has gone through a journey of nearly 12 years, it has not absorbed new members for more than 10 years, and the last expansion was in 2011 to admit South Africa as a member.
Today's international situation and economic environment are very different from 10 years ago, and with the United States pulling NATO to engage in unilateralism, the BRICS group should continue to adhere to the spirit of multilateralism and strengthen international cooperation to help more countries tide over the difficulties.
In fact, at the BRICS Video Summit hosted by China in June, in addition to the five member states, 13 other countries participated in the dialogue, including: Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Senegal, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Fiji and Ethiopia. The fact that these countries are located in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and South America is enough to prove the attractiveness of the BRICS countries.
More importantly, the expansion promoted by the BRICS countries this time also symbolizes that China will open a new diplomatic cycle. The BRICS+ framework could push China closer together with Asia, South America and the Middle East. This can be seen from the list of countries currently considering joining.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, all three countries in the Middle East, have predominantly Sunni Islamists, and although their influence is far less than that of the five permanent members of the United Nations, they are also the number one powers in the region. Saudi Arabia is one of the most influential arab countries, and the core member of OPEC and a founding member of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf has a decisive influence on international crude oil prices.
Across Eurasia, Turkey's influence spans the Middle East, the Black Sea and Europe, and Turkey is a member of NATO. In this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Turkey has once again demonstrated its unique position, not only providing weapons such as drones for Ukraine, but also refusing to follow NATO to sanction Russia, but maintaining close exchanges with Moscow.
Although Egypt has not made much headlines in recent years, it is still the hegemon of North Africa, and its military strength can also rank in the top three in the Middle East, as a former Arab alliance leader, Egypt also has an important say in Middle East affairs.
Turkey is a NATO member, and Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also allies of the United States, which means that the BRICS countries may absorb multiple U.S. allies in the future. Considering that Iran, which has opposed relations with Saudi Arabia, has also officially announced its application to join the BRICS countries, the BRICS countries may also make history, allowing the two hostile countries to sit down and discuss peace and development together.
In fact, the founding countries of the BRICS countries also have their own "social circles", India is currently a member of the four-country security mechanism of the United States, Japan, India and Australia, and Brazil is a non-NATO major ally of the United States. The differences in the "circle" over the years have not affected the role of these countries in the BRICS group, nor have they affected cooperation with other BRICS members. This highlights that China's international cooperation concept of openness, inclusiveness and multilateralism has received more support, including from U.S. allies, and shows that more countries are beginning to identify more with China.
Looking back at the concept of exclusive military alliance between the United States and NATO, the judgment is made from top to bottom.