JOHANNESBURG: China's President Xi Jinping called for unity among his BRICS counterparts at a summit in South Africa on Wednesday as he pushed the case for expanding the grouping to face a global "period of turbulence and transformation".
Leaders of the bloc of leading developing nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are meeting in Johannesburg with discussions around establishing a framework and criteria for admitting new members topping the agenda.
While all BRICS members have publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, divisions remain over how much and how quickly.
Bloc heavyweight China has long pushed for expansion and views its deteriorating relations with Washington as well as heightened global tensions resulting from the Ukraine war as adding urgency to the enlargement project.
"The world is undergoing major shifts, division and regrouping ... it has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation," Xi said.
"We, the BRICS countries, should always bear in mind our founding purpose of strengthening ourselves through unity."
BRICS group countries have economies that are vastly different in scale and governments that often seem to have few foreign policy goals in common, complicating decision-making.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sees BRICS membership as a way of showing the West he still has friends.
He did not travel to South Africa but used a video address to attack Western powers.
"I want to note that it was the desire to maintain their hegemony in the world, the desire of some countries to maintain this hegemony that led to the severe crisis in Ukraine," he said.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that he and Xi had similar positions on BRICS expansion.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday rejected the idea the bloc should seek to rival the United States and Group of Seven wealthy economies.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday his country, which is wary of Chinese dominance, fully supported expansion.
However, an Indian official familiar with discussions late on Tuesday between the leaders said Modi indicated "there have to be ground rules about how it should happen and who can join".
More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials, 22 of whom have formally asked to be admitted.
Details of criteria for joining could be included in a joint declaration are yet to be finalised. — Reuters
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