Brics members give support to expanding the bloc to face ‘turbulent times’ as China’s Xi Jinping hails ‘growing enthusiasm’

Leaders meeting in Johannesburg throw their weight behind the move, with announcement expected during summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends after skipping forum on Tuesday, calling for expansion process to be accelerated

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The annual Brics summit is under way in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: AP

Published: 9:49pm, 23 Aug 2023Updated: 3:23am, 24 Aug 2023

Brics countries, including China, have thrown their weight behind the expansion of the bloc of leading emerging economies, with an announcement expected during this week’s summit.

Meeting in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his counterparts from South Africa, Brazil, Russia and India all gave their support to the move to allow more members into the grouping, which the five countries formed in 2009.

But they were still discussing that and other issues including trading more in national currencies and support for emerging markets and developing countries. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said an announcement on expanding Brics would be made at the summit, which ends on Thursday.

The Chinese president attended the summit on Wednesday and delivered a speech after skipping a business forum on Tuesday – where he had been expected to make a speech – without explanation. Xi said the world had entered a “new period of turbulence” and Brics countries had an important role in stabilising the global economy.

He said development should not be a privilege reserved for a few but a right for all countries, and he supported the inclusion of more nations in Brics.

“I am glad to see growing enthusiasm of developing countries about participating in Brics cooperation. And quite a number of them have applied to join … we need to accelerate the Brics expansion process to bring more countries into the Brics family,” Xi said.

He said expansion would help countries to “pool our strengths and wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable”. He said international rules should not be dictated by those with the strongest muscles or loudest voices.