Southern Collective: Bolivia and Cuba to become BRICS partners from January 1

On January 1, Cuba and Bolivia will join BRICS as partner countries. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia. Negotiations regarding the inclusion of 13 countries in the group as partners have not yet been finalized, but Russia, according to Ryabkov, has not received any refusals from any of the invited countries. The final list will be published in the near future. Meanwhile, in a few weeks, the BRICS chairmanship will pass to Brazil, which has already hosted this year's G20 summit. The expert community believes that the country will largely continue to promote the agenda announced in the framework of the G20 events. Which countries will get closer to the BRICS as a result of the Kazan summit and who can repeat their path in 2025 - in the material of "Izvestia".

The Russian Federation will finalize agreements with the countries invited to BRICSby the end of the year

Bolivia and Cuba will join BRICS as partner countries from January 1, 2025, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Izvestia.

- They (Bolivia and Cuba - Izvestia) are part of the group that received the invitation. We are confident that everything will work out in terms of their involvement as partners," Sergey Ryabkov said.

The Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized that the process of coordination with the states invited to BRICS has not been completed yet, but this issue will be resolved by the end of the Russian presidency in the association.

- We have not finalized the process of coordination with the invited [states] in accordance with the decision of the Kazan summit to include them, but we expect that everything will be clarified by the end of the current presidency, and there are no refusals, of course, and there cannot be any. This is a big, serious prospect for all the invited countries, so there are only a few days left, after which the relevant list will be made public," said Sergei Ryabkov.

In general, the elaboration of the category of partner countries fell during the year of Russia's presidency in the association. There is no need for BRICS to grow with new full-fledged members. This may hinder the development of the structure, discussion of its goals and objectives, given that BRICS is a relatively young association that does not have the character of a full-fledged organization.

Following the summit in Kazan, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that 13 states are applying for the status of partner countries. The full list has not been published so far, but various sources confirm that one or another country will soon join the association in this status.

Weighted Relationship: BRICS partners will receive this status from January 1

The Russian Foreign Ministry named another country that accepted the invitation to participate in the new format

On November 15, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said that Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia had become BRICS partners. Later, Izvestia was told that Vietnam would also join the list of Asian partner countries. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Moscow sent a corresponding invitation to Hanoi and received a positive response.

In addition, the 13 partner countries apparently include Algeria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Turkey, Turkey, Uganda and Uzbekistan. However, there has been no official confirmation of this information from the Russian Foreign Ministry yet.

Which countries may join BRICS in 2025

Next year, the BRICS chairmanship will pass to Brazil. This will be the second year in a row when this South American state will become a venue for high-level international meetings. In 2024, Brazil hosted the G20 events.

So far, the republic has not presented its priorities for the BRICS presidency, however, the expert community believes that the country will largely continue to promote the G20 agenda - in particular, cooperation on taxes and financial security. Environmental issues are also likely to be part of the BRICS discussions in 2025.

- Brazil seems satisfied with the entry of Cuba and Bolivia as BRICS partners and will seek to consolidate their presence in the group. Although Brazilian diplomats are not openly discussing specific names of Latin American countries that may join BRICS in the second wave of expansion, experts still hope that Argentina or other members of Mercosur (South American Common Market - Izvestia) will join," Ana Livia Esteves, a lecturer at the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and Sputnik journalist, told Izvestia.

By the way, Argentina was supposed to become a full member of BRICS from January 1, 2024, but the new government led by Javier Miley decided not to join the association.

One of the possible candidates to join BRICS, at least as a partner, under the Brazilian presidency is Colombia. Bogota and Brasilia have already discussed this issue at the level of heads of state. In addition, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo confirmed his country's interest in cooperation with BRICS in a conversation with Izvestia.

At the same time, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which had previously shown interest in joining the group, are unlikely to become partners of the association. During the Russian presidency, the countries failed to join BRICS in this status, according to media reports, because of Brazil's veto. Diplomatic sources from that country said that Caracas and Managua need to have working relations with all the countries of the bloc, and their cooperation with Brazil has not yet developed in the most positive way.

In the summer of 2024, there was a diplomatic conflict between Nicaragua and Brazil after Brasilia decided not to send representatives to the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista People's Revolution, which was celebrated on July 19. Managua ordered the expulsion of the Brazilian ambassador, Brasilia responded with a mirror move. Prior to this, there had been other conflict situations between the parties.

As for Venezuela, the Brazilian authorities repeatedly insisted on the publication of the protocols of the presidential election to confirm the victory of Nicolás Maduro. Caracas failed to comply with this demand, scheduling Maduro's inauguration for January 10 without announcing the results of the counting of 100% of the ballots. Although there is no particular escalation in relations between the two countries now, the two sides will maintain a certain distance from each other in the first half of 2025, Ana Livia Esteves believes.

In general, the positive attitude of the countries of the Global South to cooperation with BRICS shows that the association largely represents their interests and can meet their needs, the expert said.

- The BRICS countries are united by the goal of achieving greater autonomy in the implementation of their foreign policy. They want to be sure that they can make decisions on their own, without the constraints imposed by institutions led by the collective West. In this context, there is a great convergence between the BRICS agenda and the interests of the Global South, which explains the high demand to join the group," says Ana Livia Esteves.

In addition, she said, BRICS gives the Global South countries the platform for dialog they have long needed, without economic and political pressures.

Earlier it was reported that there are more than 20 countries that are interested in one way or another in getting closer to BRICS. These include, for example, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bahrain, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe.