KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has conveyed its desire for South Africa to support its entry into the BRICS grouping that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said this was among the topics discussed during a visit from South Africa’s former international relations and cooperation minister Naledi Pandor, yesterday.
“In addition, I also touched on the need to champion the issues important to the developing countries of the Global South and the cooperation that should be fostered,” he said in a Facebook post last night.
Pandor is on a visit to Malaysia to attend the World Conference on Islamic Thought & Civilisation organised by Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah in Perak.
BRICS, initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, was established in 2009 as a cooperation platform for rapidly developing economies.
South Africa joined the bloc in 2010, followed by Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates in January this year.
Last week, Anwar said that Malaysia has sent an application to Russia to join the BRICS intergovernmental organisation.
The prime minister said the meeting also touched on the current situation in Palestine and the world’s inability to stop the oppression of the Palestinian people.
Stressing that the government will not abandon its existing commitments to other regional economic groupings, Anwar said Malaysia’s potential BRICS membership will positively contribute to the nation’s economy.
Noting that the gross domestic product of BRICS members themselves exceeds US$26.2 trillion (RM119.2 trillion), or 26.2% of the global GDP, the prime minister said there should be no concerns over differing economic, social and political backgrounds among BRICS nations.
Meanwhile, Anwar also expressed Malaysia’s firm stance and strong condemnation of the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.
At the end of the meeting, Pandor presented a commemorative work of the late former South African president Nelson Mandela, containing his notes and speeches during his tenure as president of South Africa.
The book, Anwar said, is a bestseller, continuing the legacy of Mandela’s earlier work, Long Walk to Freedom. – August 2, 2024