Iranian president will leave for South Africa on Wednesday to attend BRICS summit

Raeisi will leave Tehran for Johannesburg on Wednesday to take part in the 15th summit of BRICS heads of state at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In addition to giving a speech at the summit, the Iranian president will also meet with a number of leaders in attendance.

The upcoming summit of the BRICS will be held in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24. The leaders of 70 countries have been invited to the event.

According to South Africa, some 40 nations have shown interest in joining, either formally or informally, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Egypt.

The summit is expected to discuss the potential expansion of the group, referred to as BRICS +, and turn it into a geopolitical bloc to challenge Western dominance.

BRICS+ aims to add more countries to the group in order to build a strong transcontinental multilateral alliance. The plan has provided an opportunity for other countries to forge closer links with the bloc of major emerging economies to advance their interests.

The summit, entitled “BRICS and Africa”, will also emphasize on how the bloc can build ties with a continent increasingly becoming a scene for competition between world powers.

The BRICS group of fast-developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — is often seen as an alternative development partner to the Western economic and political hegemony.

The five-nation bloc accounts for 42 percent of the global population and about 26 percent of the world’s economy, according to the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies.

The New Development Bank (NDB) launched by the BRICS bloc also aims to de-dollarize finance and increase local currency fundraising and lending, amid Western sanctions against founding shareholder Russia.

Iran is among dozens of countries that seek membership in BRICS and has submitted a formal application to join the body.

Russia and China have welcomed Iran’s application and the group’s expansion to include international powerhouses.

Back in July, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the Islamic Republic’s potential accession to BRICS will promote multilateralism and counter unilateral policies, including sanctions.

He added that Iran’s potential membership in the bloc would provide the country with an opportunity to make use of great capacities from Africa to Asia, Latin America, and other countries.