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Rabat – Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov has said Morocco is among the two dozen countries that have shown interest in a dialogue with BRICS.
The “doors of the association remain open to like-minded countries. At the moment, over two dozen more countries have shown interest in a dialogue with BRICS,” Ushakov said on Monday.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Paestine, Syria, and South Sudan are among the countries that showed interest in the association, as well as many others from different continents, he added.
“It is clear that uncontrolled expansion of our association would break its backbone,” the Russian official said, noting that a gradual and accurate step is needed to address the situation.
Last year in August, several reports claimed Morocco was seeking BRICS membership.
However, an authorized source from the country’s Foreign Ministry denied the news, stressing that Rabat has never formally applied for membership of the BRICS.
“Morocco does indeed maintain substantial and promising bilateral relations with the other four members of the Group, and is even linked to three of them by Strategic Partnership Agreements,” the source added.
They also denied that Morocco had sought to attend a BRICS summit in South Africa.
Contrary to a statement made by South Africa’s Foreign Minister regarding the matter, the source said Pretoria “allowed itself to speak about Morocco’s ties with the BRICS without prior consultation.”
South Africa “has thus multiplied, both nationally and within the African Union, its notoriously malicious actions against Morocco’s higher interests,” the source noted.
Pretoria invited Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to participate in the BRICS-Africa meeting in Johannesburg. The invitation came days after Morocco had rejected Pretoria’s invitation to attend the event, asserting that this invitation was a unilateral initiative by Pretoria rather than a collective decision by the BRICS group or the African Union.
In October this year, South Africa reiterated its hostility towards Morocco, clearly showing that it would not support Morocco’s potential bid to be a member of the economic bloc.
According to Bloomberg, South African officials have expressed their firm opposition to any attempts to include Morocco or Nigeria in the BRICS alliance, citing concerns over the dilution of South Africa’s influence within the group.
The sentiment is not surprising as South Africa also takes a hostile approach to Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara.
Pretoria supports the Polisario Front, an Algerian backed separatist group claiming independence in southern Morocco.
