By Manal Abdel Fattah
Egypt participated for the first time in the BRICS meetings after joining as a full member as of January 1, 2024, where Ambassador Raji El-Etreby, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Economic Relations and Egypt’s representative to the BRICS, participated in the meetings of the personal representatives of the leaders of the BRICS countries, which were held in Moscow in late January. In the presence of Ambassador Nazih El-Nagary, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Moscow.
Ambassador Al-Etrebi stated that this meeting is the first in a series of meetings and events organized by the Russian presidency of the BRICS during the current year to discuss cooperation in various fields. It also comes after the founding countries of the group invited several countries to join the group’s membership, including Egypt, the Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia, stressing that membership Egypt’s grouping is consistent with its strategic weight at various levels, and the contributions it makes to promoting peace and development at the regional and international levels, in addition to the many opportunities that the Egyptian economy provides to attract investments from the BRICS countries and advance trade exchange with them.
Egyptian priorities towards the BRICS also include advancing industrial transformation efforts.
Intensifying cooperation in the fields of energy, food security, technology transfer and logistics.
The Assistant Foreign Minister also explained that the meeting witnessed the Russian BRICS presidency reviewing the main features of the action plan it prepared for the current year, leading up to the sixteenth BRICS summit, which is scheduled to be held in October 2024 in the Russian city of Kazan, and that the member states presented their vision on the priorities that should be focused on in next period. In this regard, he pointed out that the Egyptian visions and proposals regarding enhancing cooperation and coordination among the BRICS countries have received wide support, including supporting coordination mechanisms on reforming the global economic system, and pushing efforts to increase the representation of developing countries in international financial and monetary frameworks in a way that reflects their increasing economic weight. In addition to strengthening the ties between the BRICS and the African continent, establishing institutional links between the bodies concerned with investment in the BRICS countries, and working to develop payment systems between the bloc countries in national currencies.
