US President Donald Trump, speaking about the BRICS countries, named Spain as one of the states of this association.
When the American leader was signing decrees shortly after taking office, one of the journalists present asked him a question about the too-low defense spending of NATO member countries, specifically mentioning Spain and France. In response, Trump stated that Spain's spending is very small, then said that this country is part of BRICS.
"They're a BRICS nation, Spain. Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You figure it out," the president replied to the journalist.
Following this, Trump reiterated the threat to impose tariffs of "at least 100%" on BRICS countries.
The BRICS group was founded in 2006. In 2011, South Africa joined the original group (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia became full members of the organization on January 1, 2024. The Kazan Summit on 22-24 October 2024 was the first in which they participated as full members. The summit decided to create a category of partner states.