BRICS invites Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia to join bloc

The five-nation BRICS club of emerging economies that came together to tilt the international order away from the West announced plans Thursday to expand its membership, feeding concerns about a growing global divide.

The group said that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had been invited to join, and that their membership would begin in January.

The BRICS group announced the expansion at a summit in South Africa that attracted a level of global interest rarely seen since its first meeting in 2009. Back then, the group’s name was BRIC, an acronym coined by economists at Goldman Sachs to describe a group of developing nations with rapidly growing economies and populations: Brazil, China, India and Russia. South Africa would join a year later, adding an “S” to the acronym.

It is now a formalized group that seeks to challenge the dominance of Western-led forums like the Group of Seven and the World Bank. But leaders of the member states have repeatedly said they do not want direct competition with these groupings, but rather to bring diversity amid increasing polarization.