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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has been recognised as one of the 13 BRICS partner countries.
According to an update from @BRICSInfo on X, the bloc officially added 13 nations to the alliance as partner countries, though not yet as full members.
Apart from Malaysia, the other nations are Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Economy minister Rafizi Ramli is representing Malaysia at the ongoing BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, which currently chairs the bloc.
On July 28, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed that Malaysia had submitted an application to Russia to join the BRICS intergovernmental organisation.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, was established in 2009 as a cooperation platform for emerging economies, with South Africa joining in 2010.
The bloc has since expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
BRICS represents about 40% of the global population and accounts for a cumulative gross domestic product of US$26.6 trillion, or 26.2% of the world’s GDP, nearly matching G7’s economic strength.
The G7 is an informal grouping of seven of the world’s advanced economies comprising the EU, US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.