“According to the country’s officials, “BRICS membership will benefit Thailand by promoting the development of trade, investment, food and energy security.””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“On October 31, Thailand received an invitation to become a BRICS partner state from Russia, the chairman of the group in 2024. On December 24, the Cabinet of Ministers held a meeting, deciding that Thailand will give a positive response to the invitation,” he noted.
According to the country’s officials, “BRICS membership will benefit Thailand by promoting the development of trade, investment, food and energy security.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said following the results of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October that the list of the group’s partner countries had been approved. However, this was not made public. He explained that invitations will be sent to these countries first, and after a positive response, the names of the countries will be announced.
The name BRICS is in English an abbreviation of the names of the countries – the first five members of the organization (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The organization was created primarily to strengthen economic cooperation, but now it is increasingly being referred to as a “geopolitical bloc.” At the same time, the association, as before, is largely informal in nature. It has no charter, general budget, secretariat or any supranational structures.
Currently, in addition to the top five, BRICS includes Egypt, Iran, the UAE and Ethiopia. Several countries, including Belarus, Azerbaijan and Malaysia, as well as, according to informal reports, Turkey, have applied for membership. At the same time, a number of countries that previously declared their readiness to join BRICS have now abandoned such plans. Among them are Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Kazakhstan also stated that it does not yet intend to join the organization.