Saudi Arabia is still considering an invitation to become a member of the BRICS bloc of countries after being asked to join by the group last year, a Saudi official source told Reuters.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Marco Longari/Pool via Reuters
Saudi Arabia is still considering an invitation to become a member of the BRICS bloc of countries after being asked to join by the group last year, a Saudi official source told Reuters.
The source commented after South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Wednesday the kingdom had joined the grouping.
"Saudi Arabia has not yet responded to the invitation to join BRICS. It is still under consideration," the Saudi official source said in a statement to Reuters.
The group in August invited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, Argentina and Ethiopia to join from Jan. 1, although Argentina signalled it would not take up the invitation in November.
The expansion of the BRICS group, whose current members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, would give it additional economic heft and could also boost its declared ambition to become a champion of the Global South, helping reshuffle a world order it views as outdated.
Faisal Alibrahim, Saudi Arabia's economy minister, earlier this month said the kingdom was still looking into the matter.
Riyadh is weighing its options against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions between the United States, China and Russia, and as the kingdom's warming ties with Beijing have caused concern in Washington.
Fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member the UAE United Arab Emirates has said it had joined the bloc.
Reporting by Maha El Dahan
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
Yemen is edging towards the resumption of a more than decade-old frozen conflict, Yemeni officials, Western diplomats and analysts say, as attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping by Iran-aligned Houthis test the patience of the kingdom and the Yemeni government forces it backs.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that a civilian nuclear cooperation deal signed with Saudi Arabia a day earlier is "totally subject" to the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, adding a significant condition that was not part of the original agreement as announced.
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