The government of Russia confirmed on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is not yet an official member of the anti-American BRICS coalition, claiming that the Middle East will formalize its position one way or the other at this month’s summit.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a statement clarifying that Riyadh does not officially belong to BRICS after another Kremlin official, aide Yuri Ushakov, named Saudi Arabia as a member a week ago, according to Reuters. The Russian government is preparing to host the annual BRICS summit in the city of Kazan beginning on October 22.
BRICS is an economic, security, and diplomatic alliance that initially consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the countries that gave it its name. The BRICS countries voted to expand membership a year ago and extended invites to six nations: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina, and Ethiopia. Argentina, under the new leadership of anti-communist President Javier Milei, plainly declined the invite, while the others publicly accepted.
Saudi state television announced in January that the country had begun its membership term in BRICS, reports that went widely unquestioned as Saudi Crown Prince made an appearance at an emergency BRICS event in November to condemn Israel’s self-defense response to the atrocities committed by Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 of that year.
By the end of the month, however, its status became murky, as reports surfaced that Riyadh had not finalized the process to join the coalition. […]
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