WNAM REPORT: Nigeria is interested in joining BRICS and it intends to do so “at the right time,” the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar said.
“We’ll join when the time is right. We never said we are not joining BRICS. It is about timing. We have already indicated our interest in joining but we have not formally written,” he was quoted as saying by the Vanguard newspaper.
Nigeria “will do so at the right time when it is the most advantageous for [the country] to do so. There are a lot of reforms going on internally for us to be able to make that move,” the minister added.
Since its inception in 2006, BRICS has experienced two phases of expansion. In 2011, South Africa joined the original group, which included Brazil, Russia, India, and China. On January 1, 2024, five new members officially entered BRICS, namely Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia. Russia assumed the one-year rotating chairmanship of BRICS on January 1, 2024. On Moscow’s watch, BRICS will carry out over 250 events covering a wide range of issues. The key event of Russia’s chairmanship will be the BRICS summit in October 2024 in Kazan, Tatarstan, in Russia’s Volga region.
