International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has announced that the BRICS Bank has welcomed Egypt, Uruguay and the United Arab Emirates as new members.
The three members joined after the ratification process to join the bank was finalised.
Pandor said they would soon be accepting another country to join as a ninth member of the BRICS Bank.
The countries that have joined the bank are part of a group of 19 countries that have expressed an intention to join the BRICS bloc.
The BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August will discuss the issue of the expansion of the bloc.
Pandor, who was briefing the media on Friday, said the Foreign Ministers of BRICS had received a report from the President of the BRICS Bank Dilma Rousseff that Egypt, Uruguay and the UAE are now members.
Rousseff is the former president of Brazil and was appointed to head the BRICS Bank a few months ago.
Pandor said the bank has been performing well since it was established.
“We received the report as well from the vice president speaking on behalf of the president of the New Development Bank (BRICS Bank). Our bank, which began with five members, has eight members of the bank fully committed to it. We are hopeful that in the short-term a ninth member will complete the ratification processes and join the bank,” said Pandor.
She also the foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town had been joined by a number of countries.
They had foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Uruguay and Cuba.
They also invited foreign ministers from Africa including from Comoros and Gabon.
The BRICS bloc has seen an increase in other countries wanting to join it.
Pandor also said the world was increasingly moving away from a unipolar world to a multipolar system.
These are some of the issues that were discussed by the BRICS Foreign Ministers.
“We also looked at, which I think is an important subject, which is what are the links there should be between BRICS and G20 in an increasingly multipolar world. We have a sense that we are moving away from a unipolar world and there is increasing interest in multipolarity. How much do we draw these formations that have a number of shared ideals and goals,” said Pandor.
She said the BRICS foreign ministers meeting was also used to prepare for the summit in August.
This is where all BRICS leaders were expected to attend.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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