The Embassy of bolivian in Moscow handed over to the Russian side a note expressing its desire to join the BRICS group of nations -Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-, according to the Bolivian ambassador, Maria Luisa Ramos Ursagaste. In this way, the government of Luis Arce seeks to take advantage of its close relationship with the Kremlin to achieve that objective.
“We believe that the BRICS is a platform where we can simply model and build a multipolar world and that Bolivia will be able to share its experience as a free and independent country,” said the Bolivian ambassador, according to what was reported by the news agency TASS.
The Bolivian Foreign Minister, Rogelio Maitareported on Monday on his profile on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, that the president Arce, who maintains his support for Putin despite the invasion of Ukrainewill participate in a summit of the organization to be held in the South African city of Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.
“We also want to inform you that on June 12, 2023, the president Arce officially communicated Bolivia’s willingness to join the group. We seek to move towards sustainable and inclusive development, strengthening cooperation with these emerging economies,” she noted.
Last Monday, President Arce confirmed his participation in the summit after the invitation made by his South African counterpart, Ciril Ramaphosa, who is in charge of the rotating presidency of the BRICS. “President Arce feels very honored to be able to contribute to the dialogues on the integration and development of the Global South,” said Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskovconfirmed this Tuesday that the expansion of the BRICS group is an issue that is “high on the agenda” and will be addressed at the next summit.
“The issue of the expansion of the BRICS is high on the agenda, including that of the next summit. This is a very important issue, because we see that more and more countries are making statements about their intentions to join this group,” Peskov said.
More than five countries, including Argentina, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have officially applied to join the BRICS, while a dozen more have shown interest in joining this group.
In this sense, the Kremlin spokesman acknowledged that within the bloc there are disparity of “shades” about how the expansion process should occur, and even about the suitability of it.
The agency Bloomberg points to that India and Brazil could be against the enlargement of the bloc defended by China.
“In general, such interest in the BRICS group testifies to the great potential of the association and testifies to the growing authority, what is more important, the applied importance of this association,” said Peskov, who ended by stating that “heads of state will speak about your position” in this regard.
The city of Johannesburg will host the next BRICS summit, which will feature the Absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. An international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine weighs on the president.
Although at first there was talk of the possibility that South Africa would grant Putin diplomatic immunity in order to facilitate his trip to the country, finally Moscow confirmed that the president would participate electronically, being the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who will represent Russia in person.
(With information from EP)
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Source-www.infobae.com