Kazan, October 24 (AseanAll) — The 16th BRICS summit currently being held in Kazan, Russia, announced that 13 countries have officially become BRICS partners, including 4 ASEAN countries.
According to an update from @BRICSInfo on X, the bloc officially added 13 new nations to the alliance as partner countries, though not yet as full members.
The 13nations were Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Among them, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are ASEAN countries.
Russia currently chairs the bloc, which also includes Brazil, India, China and South Africa.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, was established in 2009 as a cooperation platform for emerging economies, with South Africa joining in 2010.
The bloc has since expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
BRICS represents about 40 per cent of the global population and accounts for a cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) of US$26.6 trillion, or 26.2 per cent of the world's GDP, nearly matching the economic strength of the Group of Seven (G7).
The G7 is an informal grouping of seven of the world's advanced economies, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.
