Egypt will become a full member of the BRICS club of emerging economies as of January 2024. The group had approved Cairo’s request to join the bloc during its summit in Johannesburg last week.
The current BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — also invited Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join the bloc.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi immediately welcomed the invitation extended to Egypt. “We look forward to cooperating and coordinating with them, and with the other countries invited to join the bloc, to achieve its goals toward strengthening economic cooperation among us and raise the voice of the Global South,” he said in a statement.
Initiated by Russia, the BRICS bloc held its first full summit in 2009 with the goal of providing a platform for member states to challenge the current US-dominated world order. The bloc’s member states collectively account for more than 40% of the world's population and more than 31% of global gross domestic product, according to the CIA's World Factbook.
