"By the overwhelming majority, the ten nations decided to ‘take a pause’ with new members to ‘take in’ the new members who have doubled the association," he said at a meeting with the Speaker of Belarus’ Council of the Republic, or upper house of parliament, Natalia Kochanova.

"At the same time, we are working of categories of partner countries as stages ahead of a full-fledged membership. We will support our Belarusian friends as a number of other like-minded nations," Lavrov, who is on an official visit to Minsk, said.

A meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers was held in Nizhny Novgorod on June 10 and 11. This was the first ministerial meeting following BRICS expansion in 2023 when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE joined Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as full-fledged BRICS members. About 30 more countries are interested in cooperating with the association in this or that format.

Russia took over the BRICS’ year-long presidency on January 1, 2024. Russia’s presidency features more than 250 various events, with a BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 being the central one.

MP/PR