During the interview he granted to national media and broadcast on Saturday August 5, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, spoke about Algeria’s membership of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
In this regard, President Tebboune has indicated that Algeria will begin with observer status. The Head of State also indicated that Algeria benefits from the support of the BRICS and has obtained the agreement of the group for the “first phase”.
“We have agreed that accession should begin with a first phase, that of a State, an observer member”, announced Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who explained that the members of the organization have not yet decided on the criteria to be retained to accept new members, adding that “what encourages us is that the BRICS actors support us, like Russia, China, South Africa and even Brazil”.
He also referred to the statements of the president of the BRICS bank and former president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, who considered Algeria is essential to the group. In parallel with his accession process, President Tebboune insisted on the importance of Algeria’s participation (with a contribution of 1.5 billion dollars) in the capital of the new development bank belonging to the BRICS, which “has greater financial resources than the World Bank”.
Algeria expressed its desire to join the group at the end of July 2022. In mid-June, during his state visit to Russia, President Tebboune indicated that “we thus wish to accelerate our membership of the BRICS group, given its great benefits to our economy.
According to President Tebboune, the Algerian principle of non-alignment is very close to the DNA of the BRICS. “The BRICS group is the beating heart of non-alignment. Algeria is a non-aligned country. There are no foreign bases on its soil. It is not part of NATO or any other military alliance. Non-alignment is the backbone of Algerian politics,” he said.
The President of the Republic explained that the BRICS are an economic pole “which can have a political coloring and which is in the process of being constituted”. According to him, “Algeria and China are campaigning for a multipolar world”, because “a unipolar world is no longer possible”.
The BRICS summit, during which the question of the enlargement of the group and the criteria for membership will be discussed, will take place from August 22 to 24 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Some 67 leaders from Africa and the Global South have been invited to attend this summit. On July 20, South Africa’s ambassador to the organization, Anil Sooklal, announced that 22 countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, had officially submitted an application for membership.
