Six more countries to join BRICS from Jan 1 next year, says South Africa

The new membership will take effect from January 1, he said.

The BRICS is name after the five countries which are now its members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"We have consensus on first phase of this BRICS expansion process," Ramaphosa told reporters in Johannesburg where the grouping is holding a summit.

He said BRICS had decided to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members.

Speaking immediately after Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed all six countries and vowed to work with other countries who too are eager to join.

Modi welcomes

"I take this opportunity to welcome these six nations to BRICS... and I congratulate the leaders and people of these nations,” media reports quoted Modi as saying.

“India has close ties, historic ties, with each of these countries and I believe we will work together for a new era of cooperation and prosperity.

"India fully supports the expansion of the BRICS membership and welcomes moving forward with consensus in this," Modi said, adding he also wanted reforms of multilateral financial institutions like the World Trade Organisation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping echoed the theme: "We need to ... accelerate the BRICS expansion process... to pool our strengths (and) our wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable."

Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s BRICS ambassador, said the decision by six countries to join the grouping showed the confidence the Global South had in the organization.

"Twenty-two countries have formally approached BRICS countries to become full members. There's an equal number of countries that has been informally asking about becoming BRICS members," he said.

Media reports quoted Sooklal as saying that measured by purchasing power parity, BRICS now accounts for 31.7 per cent of global GDP.

(With agency inputs)