According to the Ethiopian foreign office, Thursday, the Horn of Africa nation of Ethiopia is requesting to join the BRICS countries.
Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country after Nigeria and one of the continent’s fastest-growing economies.
The emerging economic bloc called BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China and lately, South Africa which joined the group in 2010. The term was suggested by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001.
“We expect BRICS will give us a positive response to the request we have made,” foreign ministry spokesperson Meles Alem told journalists.
“Ethiopia will continue to work with international institutions that can protect its interests“, he added.
The Ethiopian economy ranks 59th in the world according to the International Monetary Fund.
She follows Argentina, which is pursuing membership in the group too.
BRICS is shaping up to be a powerful economic bloc proving an alternative counterbalance to the Euro-Atlantic Western bloc.
Currently, BRICS countries account for more than 40% of the world’s population and about 26% of the global economy.
Another BRICS summit is expected to be held in South Africa in August although growing pressure on South Africa from the West for the ICC-ordered arrest of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could potentially force a change of venue to a country which is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court charter.
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