Russia Invites Palestine To The BRICS Summit October, Will It Be Invited To Join As A Member?

BRICS 2024 Summit. (Wikimedia Commons/AlexTref871)

Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Sergei Gennadierich Tolchenov said Russia invited Palestine to attend the BRICS Summit which will be held in Kazan in October, but could not invite him to join as a member.

"Yes," Tolchenov Ambassador answered regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to President Mahmoud Abbas, for the Palestinian presence at the upcoming summit, after a press briefing in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 20.

He explained, as the host, Russia can invite any country in a format such as BRICS Plus, for example. However, to invite you to join as a member, it must be a joint decision of the entire organization

"Russia cannot invite anyone to join multilateral organizations, because we are only one member country," he explained.

"The invitation must be sent from all organizations, in this case from BRICS," he said.

He said there was some kind of arrangement or agreement in the BRICS regarding who was invited to join the organization.

"I don't know, Palestine or Indonesia or maybe Thailand or other countries in the world. This should be an internal agreement in the organization, in this case BRICS," he said.

As previously reported, President Abbas said Palestine would be invited to attend the BRICS Summit, after he met President Putin in Moscow last August 13.

In addition to discussing bilateral relations between the two countries and the development of the situation in the Gaza Strip, the two leaders also discussed the BRICS cooperation forum.

"We have also discussed BRICS. We have reached an oral agreement that Palestine will be invited (to attend this forum) in a'reachment' format," President Abbas said, quoted by TASS.

Russia currently holds the BRICS Presidency for a year starting January 1, 2024. The Russian presidency features more than 250 different events, with the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024 being its main event.

Since its founding in 2006, the BRICS cooperation organization has experienced two phases of expansion. In 2011, South Africa joined the early group, which includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. On January 1, 2024, five new members of BRICS officially entered, namely Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.