Myanmar says it aspires to become a BRICS member

Myanmar is interested in participating in the BRICS and will make every effort to gradually join the association. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Than Swe on December 3.

He noted that BRICS is developing steadily in economic terms and represents the interests of about 45% of the world's population.

"The two founding members of the association are our neighbors. <...> Moreover, Myanmar is located in a very promising place in terms of geo-economics. You can see that Myanmar's five neighboring countries - China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand - have 3.2 billion population, one of the largest trade markets in the world," he said in an interview with TASS.

According to the minister, all developing countries want peace and not a repeat of colonialism, which is why they are eager to participate in the unification.

"Thus, we are interested in participating in the BRICS. We will try to do our best to become a member of BRICS step by step," Swe concluded.

Earlier, on November 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has a serious task in BRICS - the integration of new participants. The head of state noted that BRICS cooperation, which is built on the basis of mutual respect and consideration of the interests of each party, brings them concrete, tangible results and this can be felt in practice.

On September 15, Myanmar's Information Minister Maung Maung Ohn announced the country's desire to be an observer in BRICS.

On September 14, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that BRICS is a platform that "improves the lives of those countries that are part of it and interact with each other."

Prior to that, on September 12, Putin said that 34 countries had already expressed their desire to join the BRICS community in one form or another.

BRICS is an interstate association of countries. The last summit at the level of heads of its member states was held in Johannesburg in August 2023. Following its results, the BRICS members decided on a historic expansion. On January 1, 2024, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were joined by Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE.

Russia will chair the organization in 2024.