Ministers from more than a dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, were in Cape Town on Friday for talks on establishing closer links with the Brics bloc of major emerging economies, as the group met with the intention of deepening ties and positioning itself as a counterweight to the West.
Brics – which for now consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is considering expansion, and even the possibility of a new, common currency for international trade as an alternative to the US dollar in an effort to avoid the impact of sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
