Argentina, Iran Apply to Join BRICS Group of Emerging Economies That Includes China and Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in the XIV BRICS summit in virtual format via a video call, in Moscow, on June 23, 2022. Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

Argentina and Iran have applied to join to become members of the group of emerging economies known as the BRICS, according to officials.

The BRICS includes the world’s leading emerging market economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and is an acronym for those developing nations, which represent 42 percent of the world’s population and 24 percent of the global gross domestic product.

Iran’s membership in the BRICS group “would result in added values for both sides,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, according to the Tasnim news agency. Khatibzadeh noted that while BRICS is not a treaty bloc, it has a “very creative mechanism with broad aspects.”

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson added that Tehran has already had “a series of consultations” with BRICS about the application.

The idea of the group was first formulated by Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs, Jim O'Neill, in a 2001 study titled “Building Better Global Economic BRICs” (pdf).

According to the official website of the South African government, BRICS countries have increased their share of global GDP threefold in the past 15 years and the group aims to “promote peace, security, development, and cooperation.”

“It also aims at contributing significantly to the development of humanity and establishing a more equitable and fair world,” according to officials.

In a separate statement on Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Argentina had also applied to join the group.

Hoping to Become a Member

“While the White House was thinking what to disconnect, ban, or spoil in the world, Argentina and Iran have applied for joining BRICS,” Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Argentinian officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez is pictured during a bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor on the sidelines of the G-7 summit at Elmau Castle, southern Germany, on June 27, 2022. Markus Schreiber/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

However, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez, who is currently in Europe, said at a BRICS+ meeting on June 24 that his country is hoping to become a full member of the association.

“We are enthusiastic about the prospect of coordinating policies that enhance the agenda of the countries of the global south,” Fernandez said.

“We are safe and responsible food suppliers, recognized in the field of biotechnology and applied logistics technology. This means that we are not only capable of producing and exporting food. We also know how to provide services and train specialists so that other countries can increase their productive efficiency and thus improve the quality of life of their inhabitants,” Fernandez added. “We aspire to be full members of this group of nations.”

During that virtual meeting, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Argentine leader also called for “peace in Ukraine,” while other BRICS nations called for renewed talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

“We have also discussed our concerns over the humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine and expressed our support to efforts of the U.N. Secretary-General, U.N. Agencies, and ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] to provide humanitarian assistance,” the group said in a joint statement.

‘Selfish Actions of Individual States’

China, India, and South Africa have previously abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution calling for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation can we look for ways out of the crisis situation that has developed in the global economy due to the ill-considered and selfish actions of individual states, which, by using financial mechanisms, are actually shifting their own macroeconomic policy mistakes onto the rest of the world,” Putin said during the BRICS virtual meeting.

“We are confident that today, as never before, the world needs the BRICS countries’ leadership in defining a unifying and positive course for forming a truly multipolar system of interstate relations based on the universal norms of international law and the key principles of the U.N. Charter.”

Reuters contributed to this report.