Malaysia prepares to join Brics pending ‘final results’ from South Africa

‘We have made a decision, we will be placing the formal procedures soon’, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview

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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says he’s relieved that the world is no longer unipolar. Photo: Bloomberg

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Published: 12:59pm, 18 Jun 2024Updated: 5:29pm, 26 Jun 2024

Corrected [5:27pm, 26 Jun, 2024]

[5:27pm, 26 Jun, 2024]
An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Argentina had joined Brics. While the South American nation initially expressed an interest in joining, it later withdrew from its planned entry. This has been corrected.

Malaysia is preparing to join the Brics group of emerging economies, according to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

“We have made a decision, we will be placing the formal procedures soon … we are just waiting for the final results from the government in South Africa,” Anwar said in an interview with Shanghai-based new site Guancha.

We can no longer accept the scenario where the West wants to control the discourse

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

The group of nations originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which gave it the acronym.

The group last year began to expand its membership as it looks to challenge a world order dominated by Western economies, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates joining and more than 40 countries expressing interest. The additional countries’ membership took effect on January 1.

A representative from the Malaysian prime minister’s office on Tuesday confirmed his comments. Anwar did not provide further details on the Brics application process.

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In the interview, Anwar said Malaysia was committed to the Global South and its potential membership in Brics would be of strategic importance given the Strait of Malacca’s position as an important shipping lane connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans.