BRICS Summit: China, India express support for expansion

The two leaders used their address on the second day of the summit to outline their support for some of the issues on the agenda.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has already reaffirmed South Africa's support for the bloc's expansion.

He also confirmed that more than 20 countries have formally applied to join BRICS, while several others have expressed an interest in joining the formation.

Prime Minister Modi said his country fully supports bringing more countries into the bloc.

“India fully supports the expansion of BRICS membership, and we welcome moving forward on this based on consensus

“In 2016 during India’s [BRICS] presidency, we had defined BRICS as a group building responsive, collective and inclusive solutions. Seven years later, we can say that BRICS will be breaking barriers, revitalising economies, inspiring innovation, creating opportunities and shaping the future," said Modi.

This was supported by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who said the process to bring more countries into the bloc must be accelerated.

“I am glad to see the growing enthusiasm of developing countries about participating in BRICS cooperation and quite a number of them have applied to join the BRICS cooperation mechanism.

“We need to make good use of the BRICS plus cooperation format and accelerate the BRICS expansion process to bring more countries into the BRICS family so as to pool our strength, pool our wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable,” said the Chinese President.

It was previously thought that while China wanted to rapidly grow the BRICS amid rising competition with the United States, the bloc's other major power, India, was wary of the intentions of its geopolitical rival.

Russia President, Vladimir Putin, who addressed the summit via video link, said when his country takes the lead of the group next year, he will support any decision taken at this summit -including the decision on the membership expansion

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