A new report, titled, ‘Trade Potential and Transport Connectivity of BRICS Countries After the 2024 Enlargement’, says that all the 10 Southeast Asian countries are interested in “rapprochement” with the intergovernmental Global South grouping.
It underlined that the potential accession of ASEAN countries to BRICS would fully meet the “strategic interests” of the grouping, especially in regards to the development of International Transport Corridors (ITC).
The report noted that the Subgroup on Transport and Logistics of the BRICS Business Council had identified five key ITCs to bolster economic exchanges- International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the East-West Corridor and routes developed within the framework of One Belt, One Road (OBOR), routes connecting Azov/Black Sea with Egypt and Africa and Latin America and the international sea shipping lanes connecting China and Brazil, Russia and Brazil as well as Russia and South Africa.
The BRICS subgroup has also identified a proposed Trans-African transport route system as a promising connectivity project.
Further, the Roscongress report noted that 23 countries have expressed an interest in joining the BRICS through a membership application.
The countries whose membership bids was currently under consideration include Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Cuba, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Senegal and Thailand.
It stated that four countries formally acceded to the BRICS at the Johannesburg Summit-Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The report said that although Argentina and Saudi Arabia's BRICS applications had been accepted, the Argentine President Javier Milei abandoned plans to join the grouping after his election last year.
"The process of the official accession of Saudi Arabia stopped at one of the stages of internal coordination: it took the country more time than initially expected to weigh the economic benefits and political risks of such a step," it stated.