South Africa's foreign minister says further BRICS expansion should be well thought out

BRICS member countries should think well about further expansion of the association, South African Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

"We see a lot of interest from many countries to join the group. But I don't think our association was conceived as an institution. We should think about it carefully," she said when asked about the possibility of further expanding the format.

According to the politician, the BRICS' task is to create an environment "that can be effectively managed". "We are very careful to respect the interests of the BRICS countries as we do not want the concept of association to be lost," the minister added. Naledi Pandor considers one of the pluses of BRICS to be that "being in this format opens up the possibility of talking about topics that would be more difficult to discuss in other associations."

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the discussion of further BRICS expansion should be postponed until the summit in Kazan.