The Russian side welcomes the bids of Egypt and Bangladesh to join BRICS, the organization's expansion to be discussed at the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik.
"We welcome the interest expressed by Bangladesh, Egypt and a number of other countries in increasing cooperation with the BRICS," the ministry said, commenting on the submission of bids.
The ministry added that both Egypt and Bangladesh have repeatedly participated in BRICS events, including the meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers in Cape Town on June 2, 2023, and are among the shareholders of the New Development Bank.
The ministry expressed confidence that "the association would benefit from strengthening cooperation with developing countries, many of which have explicitly stated their desire to do so."
When asked about what other countries were planning to join the bloc, the ministry said that "it was premature to talk about specific candidates before all the modalities of this process are agreed."
"In this context, we welcome the willingness of the South African presidency to make progress on the topic of enlargement in the nearest future. We are confident that this issue will attract special attention during the upcoming BRICS summit this year," the ministry said.
BRICS unites the world's largest developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South Africa, which assumed the rotating BRICS presidency in January, is expected to host the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August.