SAO PAULO.- Venezuela and Nicaragua were left out of the list of countries that aspire to be members of the association of “emerging economies” of the world called the BRICSand has been decided hours before the XVI Summit, the first formal meeting to be held in Kazan, Russia.
The exclusion of the two South American countries was reported by Brazilian media, which indicate that although the decision “coincides” with the desire of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva that they not enter the bloc, the Brazilian president would have pressured the members of BRICS so that both countries would be left off the list, which in itself has been interpreted as a veto by Brazil.
Brazil is the founding country of the BRICS group along with Russia, India and China, then it was officially established in 2010 after the formal incorporation of South Africa. In 2024, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia joined and were pending approval of the membership applications of Nicaragua and Venezuela, among other countries such as Saudi Arabia. Argentina recently resigned from being part of the bloc.
This Tuesday the 22nd, the BRICS partners approved and closed the list of countries that aspired to join the bloc. An official statement was expected, while Nicolás Maduro, who aspired to join, attends as a guest along with his vice president Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Iván Gil.
Russia-Venezuela meeting
“The Russians are aware of Lula’s anger with (Nicolás) Maduro,” according to some – unidentified – sources consulted about the decision that is assumed, until now, as a defeat for the Venezuelan dictator clinging to power despite not having re-elected result in internationally disputed elections.
Maduro has been in Russia since October 22, where he would also try to gain access to other economies in the midst of the deep crisis that Venezuela has been going through for more than 10 years, but which the regime attributes to the sanctions. It has also attempted rapprochements with China in that regard.
For this October 23, Nicolás Maduro and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in a meeting parallel to the summit to discuss bilateral and cooperation issues within the framework of the BRICS, according to Kremlin sources.
“I confirm it,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the media, referring to this quote.
For his part, the Kremlin’s advisor for International Affairs, Yuri Ushakov, stated: “There are a million issues (to be discussed),” while negotiations between the two countries with authoritarian regimes were being prepared.
