Belarus expects to receive the status of BRICS partner at the summit of the organisation in Kazan in October, said Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov. The country applied for BRICS membership last year.
Russia took over the BRICS chairmanship on 1 January this year. The year began with new members joining the organisation – in addition to Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, it now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Belarus applied for BRICS membership last year. In late June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting with Natalia Kochanova, Speaker of the Upper House of the Belarusian Parliament, that the BRICS countries had decided to take a pause in accepting new members. At the same time, he emphasised that the association will have a category of partner countries – a step before full membership – and promised to promote Minsk’s obtaining this status.
“The issue of our joining BRICS as a partner is being worked out. Today we met with the new Chinese ambassador. He shared information with us that a consensus has already been reached on what the partner status will be. Now we need to work more actively with the member states of the organisation so that this status is granted to us at the BRICS summit to be held in Kazan, where our president will take part,” Maxim Ryzhenkov said in an interview with the First News TV channel.
We shall remind you that on 24 February 2022, Vladimir Putin announced in an address to Russians that he had decided to launch a special military operation in Donbas. The Russian leader described its goal as demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. The president described the special operation as a forced measure to protect people who are subjected to abuse and genocide. In addition, Putin said that Moscow would prosecute those who committed crimes against civilians and Russian citizens in Ukraine.
