Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah will arrive in South Africa this week to take part in the BRICS Plus Dialogue and the BRICS-Africa Outreach events, according to reports.
Saudi Arabia is a candidate to join the BRICS group, along with 22 other nations. Officials from the organization said no announcements would be made about new entrants to the group.
“Prince Faisal has been deputized by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to represent the Kingdom at the events that will be held in Johannesburg on Thursday under the theme “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism,” the state-affiliated Asharq Alawsat news source said.
The dialogue conference will be held on the sidelines of the 10th BRICS summit that began on Tuesday and will conclude on Thursday. The theme of the 15th annual BRICS summit is “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution.”
The expansion of the BRICS group is one of the major items on the agenda of the summit. Saudi Arabia, which is the largest trading partner of the BRICS group in the Middle East, is one of the applicants. Around 40 countries have expressed their interest to join BRICS, while 23 countries have formally applied, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Thailand, Cuba, Egypt, Nigeria. Saudi Arabia was among more than a dozen countries that participated in “Friends of BRICS” talks in Cape Town in June. It has received backing from Russia and Brazil to join the BRICS.
On the sidelines of the summit, Prince Faisal will reportedly hold a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the countries participating in the BRICS Plus and BRICS Africa dialogue. The Saudi delegation also includes Deputy Minister of Foreign for International Affairs Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Rassi, Director General of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulrahman Al-Dawood, and Director General of International Organizations Shaher Al-Khunaini.
