China Invites 5 Guest Countries to Summit in 'Brics Plus Approach'

Egypt, Kenya, Tajikistan, Mexico and Thailand are the invited guests of China to the upcoming Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) summit, scheduled to be held in Xiamen city from September 3 to 5.

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China, the host of the summit, made certain to clarify that the invitations were not to be misinterpreted as an attempt to expand the group.

"We need to have some further explanation about the Brics Plus to help people better understand the rationale of this idea," said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

When he mentioned 'Brics Plus' in March, it sparked speculations that Beijing was making a move to expand. But, the minister was dismissive of the assumption, stating that member countries had invited non-Brics countries to previous summits.

Wang cited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invitation of Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic) last year.

He added that, Russia, Brazil and South Africa also invited neighboring countries when they were hosts.

"So actually this has been a practice that we have for a number of years and this time, inspired by the experiences of previous BRICS leaders meeting, we have invited some countries for dialogue," he said, referring to the invitation to the five countries.

"Our practice is a little bit different, we are not just inviting countries in our neighborhood, but also countries from all around the world that are interested in Brics mechanism," he said. 

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China's invitation to the five countries has been supported by the leaders of the four other countries. 

"We want to broaden the discussion to non-Brics countries as well. I am confident that the dialogue this year will also be a success and also help expand BRICS influence. This is not only consistent with the interests of Brics members but also meets the common aspirations of emerging markets and developing countries," Wang shared.