Rio de Janeiro: In a significant development, BRICS members welcomed Indonesia into the group at the Summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. Ten other nations, including Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Cuba, Vietnam, Uganda, and Uzbekistan, are now partner countries.
“We welcome the Republic of Indonesia as a BRICS member, as well as the Republic of Belarus, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Cuba, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Malaysia, the Kingdom of Thailand, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Uganda, and the Republic of Uzbekistan as BRICS partner countries,” the Joint Declaration of the 17th Summit stated.
The statement underlined the significance of the adoption of the BRICS Leaders’ Framework Declaration on Climate Finance and of the BRICS Leaders’ Statement on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence, as well as endorsed the launch of the BRICS Partnership for the Elimination of Socially Determined Diseases. These initiatives demonstrate the joint efforts of BRICS to foster inclusive and sustainable solutions to pressing global issues, according to the joint declaration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the expansion of the group during the BRICS session ‘Peace and Security and Reform of Global Governance’ on Sunday. He had stated that the expansion of BRICS and the inclusion of new partners demonstrates its ability to evolve with times and called for reforming institutions like the United Nations Security Council, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Multilateral Developments.
“The expansion of BRICS and the inclusion of new partners reflect its ability to evolve with the times. Now, we must demonstrate the same determination to reform institutions like the UN Security Council, the WTO, and Multilateral Development Banks. In the age of AI, where technology evolves every week, it’s unacceptable for global institutions to go eighty years without reform. You can’t run 21st-century software on 20th-century typewriters,” Modi said.
BRIC was established after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India, and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2006.
The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010, according to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement, South Africa attended the third BRICS Summit in Sanya in 2011.
A further expansion of BRICS took place in 2024 with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE becoming full members of BRICS from January 1, 2024. In January 2025, Indonesia joined the BRICS as a full member, while Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan were inducted as partner countries.
