BRICS will approve the category of partner countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2024).
Lavrov said:
This category should be presented in its details both in terms of criteria and countries that can qualify for it.
According to Lavrov, BRICS is considering about 30 appeals from different states that propose to establish various forms of co-operation. Russia, as BRICS chairman, pays “great attention to the fact that the newcomers should get used to the already established forms of work and traditions,” the minister said.
He emphasised that the process is very smooth and “all arising and inevitable issues are solved normally.”
The Commonwealth was established in June 2006 at the SPIEF with the participation of economy ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China. Initially, the organisation was called BRIC after the first letters of the founding countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Since 2009, the governments of the countries have met annually at official summits. South Africa joined the association in 2011, since then the name BRICS has appeared.
In August 2023, BRICS invited Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Iran, Argentina, Ethiopia and UAE to join the group from January 1, 2024.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said at a session of the SPIEF 2024 that Russia’s defence industry has attracted about 520,000 specialists in less than a year and a half. Manturov noted:
We have attracted 520,000 specialists to the defence industry complex in less than a year and a half. And there is still a need for about 160 thousand.
He stressed that trained people are attracted to work at defence industry enterprises. This requires high-class specialists.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with Sky News that Russia was able to strengthen its defence industry faster than predicted, while at the same time NATO countries took more time to increase arms production.
Stoltenberg emphasised:
It is true that Russia has been able to strengthen its defence industry faster than we expected, and it is true that NATO allies have spent more time than they should have on increasing arms production.
He also noted that NATO countries lost their domestic defence industries after the end of the Cold War.
