The BRICS is opening its doors to enlargement; the document outlining the contours of the BRICS expansion has been drawn up and will soon be submitted to the foreign ministers of the Group of Five, Anil Sooklal, sherpa of the Republic of South Africa in BRICS, told Sputnik.
According to Sooklal, the document is to be submitted at a further meeting of the BRICS' sherpas and sous-sherpas on July 20, after which BRICS foreign ministers will study the report and give their recommendations on the expansion for the next BRICS summit which will take place in Johannesburg in August.
The idea of expansion has been floating around the BRICS for several months. Some thirty countries are interested in the group's work, as Sooklal points out. Some African states have already officially applied for membership, including Algeria, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Their reasons are manifold: some are looking for economic development opportunities, while others have a more political approach, seeking to bring about the emergence of a multipolar world, as Uriat Cham Ugala, Ethiopian ambassador to Russia, recently explained to Sputnik.