Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has advocated the inclusion of more countries in the BRICS group.
He supported the entry of countries such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates into the group, Lula said in the Brazilian capital Brasília on Wednesday, local media reported.
The next summit of the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as they are known, is to take place in Johannesburg from Aug. 22 to 24.
Lula also called the seven leading industrialized nations (G7) a “club” that should not exist because its form of talking about geopolitics was outdated. Britain, the U.S., France, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Germany make up the group of Western industrialised nations.
Lula also said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) often helped “sink countries,” media reported.
Lula has repeatedly criticised international structures and institutions such as the IMF and has himself come under fire for controversial statements on the war in Ukraine. (dpa/NAN)