South Africa’s Ramaphosa gives full support to expansion of Brics group ahead of summit

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has given his full support to the expansion of the Brics group ahead of its summit in Johannesburg, insisting that doing so would result in a more balanced world order.

In a television address on Sunday night ahead of the conference of leading emerging economies this week, Mr Ramaphosa also emphasised South Africa’s commitment to non-alignment, saying it would not be forced to side with any nation.

South Africa has been heavily criticised by some observers in the West for refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Mr Ramaphosa’s African National Congress-led government has remained steadfast in its view that taking sides in the war will not help to end it.

“We have resisted pressure to align ourselves with any one of the global powers or with influential blocs of nations,” he said, adding that when African countries did so during the cold war their stability and sovereignty had been undermined. “This experience has convinced us of the need to seek strategic partnerships with other countries, rather than be dominated by any [one] country,” he said.

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Mr Ramaphosa said South Africa strove to work with all nations to achieve global peace and development. “It is for this reason that South Africa is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, a forum of some 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc,” he said.

South Africa is hosting the 15th Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – summit from Tuesday to Thursday, and during the gathering the leaders of the member nations aim to increase their political and economic ties as well as explore the group’s expansion.

Mr Ramaphosa says more than 20 nations have formally asked to join the group, and a similar number have expressed an interest in doing so. Among those seeking to join Brics are Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, countries that have fallen foul of the West’s political and economic sanctions and are seeking an alternative home on the global stage.

The Brics expansion was first mooted at its annual conference last year in China, and senior officials from each member nation were tasked with exploring how best to increase the group’s number in a viable way.

China’s president Xi Jinping, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will all attend the summit in person. Russia’s Vladimir Putin will participate virtually, as he faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Were Mr Putin to travel to South Africa, the local authorities would be obliged to arrest him as the country is a member of The Hague-based ICC. Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the summit in Mr Putin’s absence.