BRICS foreign ministers gather in South Africa

By Murat Ozgur Guvendik

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - A meeting of foreign ministers of BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa -- countries was held in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday.

Hosted by South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor, the meeting gathered Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu.

The ministers addressed regional and global issues, the UN Security Council reform, protection of multilateralism, security, sustainable development, counter-terrorism, climate, energy security, and mutual cooperation.

Unilateral international sanctions' violation of international law and their effects on the world economy were also discussed.

The meeting also addressed introducing a common currency for the BRICS countries and accepting new members to the group.

Zhaoxu said BRICS provides a platform of solidarity for developing countries and is very welcomed by the international community.

"We are happy to see a growing number of countries expressing their desire to join the BRICS family," he added.

Jaishankar noted that BRICS is working on determining the principles, criteria, and standards for new member admissions to the bloc, adding that they act in good faith in this regard.

Vieira, on his part, stressed that BRICS was a 15-year success story.

Speaking at a news conference following the meeting, Pandor underlined that the 15th BRICS Summit will be held in Johannesburg on Aug. 22-24 -- referring to a claim that the event would be scheduled in another country as the International Criminal Court ruled to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin for committing war crimes in Ukraine.

Stressing that it was a standard procedure for South Africa to provide diplomatic immunity to the participants of the summit in August, Pandor noted that it was not taken against any decision of international courts.

Meanwhile, Lavrov said, about the claims, that "this news was published only in one of the English tabloids," and that he does not read English newspapers.