The BRICS group will grow and become depoliticized

Barcelona. Mauro Vieira will be the next Brazilian Foreign Minister. On January 1, he will take office after Lula da Silva is sworn in as president in Congress.

Yesterday, during an event organized by the Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB) on international relations, Vieira said that one of the objectives of his portfolio will be to grow the BRICS mechanism.

Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia “have expressed their interest in joining and are preparing a membership application” to the bloc, Vieira said. “The fundamentals of the BRICS will also be new because we want to talk about trade and not politics.”

BRICS, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will undergo an expansion process. “There is a whole queue of states demanding full membership. If all the applications are accepted, the BRICS will become between 15 and 17 countries,” he commented.

One of the characteristics that the group will have will be its specialized focus: trading. “The world is polarized, where ideology is discussed, consensus is broken,” said the man who was also the permanent representative of Brazil to the United Nations between 2016-2020.

Lula’s next foreign minister commented that countries like Mexico would have a place in the international mechanism. “It would strengthen him, without a doubt.”

geopolitica@eleconomista.mx