EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The BRICS dialogue platform is attracting more and more attention of the international community, Belarusian First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lukashevich said at a briefing on 9 September to discuss the promotion of the Republic of Belarus in BRICS, BelTA has learned.
“The BRICS dialogue platform, which is gaining momentum, is attracting more and more attention of the world community seeking a fairer balance of political and economic relations. Belarus takes an active and clear position in this matter,” Sergei Lukashevich said. “The starting point of our country's movement towards BRICS was the message of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko of 16 May 2023 addressed to the heads of the member countries of the association, together with an application to join the BRICS,” he said.
“This step let Belarus join the first “pool” of candidate states (along with such countries as Algeria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, Honduras, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Senegal and Thailand). Belarus' intentions towards BRICS has been repeatedly demonstrated by the country’s active and interested participation in the thematic events of the association,” the first deputy minister of foreign affairs said.
At the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa in August 2023, Belarus was represented by a delegation led by the minister of foreign affairs. “We welcomed the decisions of this landmark forum, at which the BRICS leaders unanimously invited six countries, including Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia, to join the association from 1 January 2024. We are grateful to our Russian friends for the fact that their presidency in BRICS in 2024 helped Belarus join a wide range of BRICS events, in particular, to the Foreign Ministers Meeting, for the first time,” Sergei Lukashevich said.
Representatives of the Belarusian government bodies took an active part in the first meeting of the BRICS Climate Contact Group in March 2024; the sixth meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Disaster Risk Management (Disaster Management) in April 2024; the BRICS Sports Games and Sports Ministers Meeting; the BRICS Chief Justices Forum in June 2024; the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in July 2024.
Sergei Lukashevich noted: “With the forthcoming presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil, we express our hope and fully expect continuity of approaches to our active participation in the association. We are by no means abandoning the main goal of joining BRICS and will work hard to achieve it”.