"Yes, we have expressed our interest and applied to join the alliance," the diplomat was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.
The daily cited a source as saying that the South Asian nation's membership of the bloc — which currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — was made following a meeting between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Geneva last week.
BRICS leaders will hold a summit meeting in Johannesburg in August. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that experts would brief the five leaders about the bloc’s potential new members.
Countries, predominantly from the Global South, have been lining up to join the group, which accounts for about a quarter of global gross domestic product and more than 40% of the world's population. The aspiring member states include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, and Argentina.