Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left), Xi Jinping, Cyril Ramaphosa, Narendra Modi and Sergei Lavrov attend the 2023 BRICS Summit. AFP

The BRICS group of nations has decided to invite six countries — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia — to become new members of the bloc, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

The debate over expanding the BRICS bloc, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has topped the agenda at a three-day summit in Johannesburg ending on Thursday.

While all BRICS members have publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there were divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.

Reuters