Egypt has applied to join BRICS, says Russian envoy

Egypt has formally applied to join the five-member BRICS bloc of emerging economies, the Russian ambassador to Cairo, Georgy Borisenko, told Russian state news agency TASS.

"Egypt has applied to join the BRICS group, because one of the initiatives that BRICS is currently engaged in is the maximum transfer of trade to alternative currencies, whether national or the creation of some kind of joint currency. Egypt is very interested in this," Borisenko was quoted as saying.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

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In June, the foreign ministers of BRICS member states held a meeting in Cape Town, which also saw the attendance of top diplomats from 12 other countries, including Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

TheBRICS has been seeking to expand their membership as many experts have predicted that the bloc will dominate the world economy by 2050.

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The Russian envoy further said that Egypt has been looking to boost trade and economic cooperation with Russia.

"New payment mechanisms are being created for trade transactions," Borisenko added.

The BRICS nations account for 40 per cent of the world’s population and almost a third of the global economy. The members of the group have recently outpaced the G7 in terms of economic growth.

Egypt’s journey towards de-dollarisation

The development comes after Egypt joined the BRICS bank, the New Development Bank (NDB). The Egyptian lawmakers had welcomed the agreement in January, saying it could help the crisis-hit country to reduce demand on US dollars.

The call to ditch the dollar in settling overseas trade has been getting louder with more countries joining the league. Egypt has become the latest entrant to shed the US currency in trade with several member states of the BRICS economic bloc.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Supply Minister Ali Moselhy said that the cash-strapped country is looking to pay for imports from India, China and Russia in their local currencies instead of the US dollar.

“Nothing of the sort has been implemented but there are discussions so that we can trade in local currencies of countries like India, Russia or China,” Egyptian Supply Minister Ali Moselhy was quoted as saying byReuters.

This comes at a time when Egypt is trying to stabilise its economy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year rocked its tourism industry, raised commodity prices and prompted foreign investors to pull about $20 billion out of its financial markets.

Inflation has risen sharply over the last year in Egypt after a series of currency devaluations, a prolonged shortage of foreign currency, and continuing delays in getting imports into the country.

(With inputs from agencies)

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