Ethiopia, one of the continent’s economies with the highest rate of growth, has sought to join the BRICS group of developing nations, the foreign ministry announced on Thursday.
Jim O’Neill, a Goldman Sachs economist, first used the acronym BRIC to characterise the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, and China in 2001. In 2009, the BRIC nations met for the first time in Russia. In 2010, South Africa joined.
“We expect BRICS will give us a positive response to the request we have made,” foreign ministry spokesman Meles Alem told journalists.
He declared that Ethiopia will keep collaborating with organisations on the global stage that can look out for its interests.
The country in the Horn of Africa has the second-largest population in Africa, but according to the International Monetary Fund, its economy is only ranked 59th in the world and is just about half the size of South Africa, which is the smallest of the BRICS nations.
Argentina, the 23rd-largest economy in the world, said last year that it had gained formal support from China to join the organisation, which is viewed as a potent emerging-market alternative to the West.
In response to rumors that the summit would be relocated so that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t have to be detained on charges of war crimes, South Africa announced on Thursday that it would host the event as scheduled in August.
More over 40% of the world’s population and around 26% of the global GDP are made up of BRICS nations.
