With Pakistan intensifying efforts to get the membership of BRICS as soon as possible, India is firm on its stand against Islamabad’s inclusion in this group which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Pakistan has applied for membership with the BRICS Group of Nations Union in 2024. Officials at MEA have held a meeting to discuss this development, sources said, adding, “Pakistani diplomats have ramped outreach to both Russia and China, expecting their support for its BRICS entry.”
Diplomats here have learnt that Pakistan’s care-taker government is preparing to send some foreign ministry officials to Beijing and Moscow to push its BRICS agenda. India is aware that China wants to integrate Pakistan into the BRICS, and President Xi Jinping is said to have shown a keen interest in doing Islamabad a favour. China has argued that the BRICS coalition should expand its membership to include more developing nations. Xi is using the rationale to advocate for Pakistan’s inclusion. Sources told The Daily Guardian that India will register its opposition to the move to include Pakistan in BRICS at an appropriate time. Indian officials have got information that China has initiated efforts to garner support from other colleagues in the group to include Pakistan in it. “New Delhi has examined and assessed the development reported by the Russian news agency TASS which has quoted a recent interview with Pakistan’s newly appointed Ambassador to Russia Muhammad Khalid Jamali, saying that Pakistan has applied for membership with the BRICS Group of Nations Union in 2024,” said a diplomat. According to sources, Pakistani diplomats have sought an appointment with the Chinese foreign minister to push this agenda on BRICS expansion. But India is going to continue to oppose Pakistan and China’s joint move to include Islamabad in this group, for which a comprehensive strategy is being formulated at the Ministry of External Affairs in consultation with the envoys posted in China and Russia. India will also reach out to Russia to persuade President Vladimir Putin not to back Pakistan.
China is keen to include Pakistan in BRICS, obviously keeping its own strategic agenda in mind, sources said. The league of developed and developing nations originally consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and was formed in 2010. At its last summit in South Africa in October the BRICS group decided to invite six more countries to join their alliance. Pakistan had made a move in this regard earlier also. Pakistan earlier accused “one member” of the BRICS coalition of obstructing its participation in a virtual meeting held during the bloc’s recent summit hosted by China. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members of BRICS. Their membership will take effect from 1 January, 2024. Meanwhile, Jamali reportedly confirmed that Pakistan intends to participate within the group under Russian chairmanship, in 2024. “Pakistan would like to be part of this important organisation and we are in the process of contacting member countries for extending support to Pakistan’s membership in general and the Russian Federation in particular,” the ambassador said in the interview.