Doha – The BRICS Group’s New Development Bank (NDB) is showing interest in welcoming Morocco as a new member, according to the bank’s Chief Procurement Officer, Anand Kumar Srivastava. The bank is also preparing to finance its first projects in Egypt, which joined the bloc last year.
In an interview with Asharq Business, Srivastava indicated that the bank is open to Morocco’s potential membership. “At present, Morocco is not a member of the New Development Bank,” Srivastava said.
“Membership begins with the country contacting BRICS and then starting the process, after which they pay a share of the capital to become a full member, and then they can benefit from financing operations,” he added. “We hope that Morocco will become a member as well, because we are in the process of expanding.”
The CPO made these statements during a conference in Rabat on Monday on government procurement that meets environmental standards.
This marks the first official participation of the New Development Bank in a formal event in Morocco, despite the North African country not being a member of the organization.
Representatives from several international development banks attended the conference, including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the French Development Agency, which are among the country’s largest lenders.
The founding BRICS member states – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – established the NDB in 2015. Egypt, the UAE, and Bangladesh joined last year. A decade after its launch, the bank’s financing has reached $39 billion across 122 projects in member countries, according to Srivastava.
Interest in BRICS bloc membership has surged globally, with Morocco among the nations eyeing potential cooperation. Last December, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov revealed that Morocco was among more than 20 countries actively pursuing 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 stated, noting that countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine, Syria, and South Sudan are among those interested.
However, when reports claiming Morocco was seeking BRICS membership surfaced in 2023, an authorized source from Morocco’s Foreign Ministry denied the news. Rabat had never formally applied for membership, the government official stressed.
“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 asserted.
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Morocco also rejected South Africa’s unilateral invitation to attend the BRICS/Africa meeting in Johannesburg. “It has become clear that South Africa will manipulate the nature and purpose of this event to serve an undisclosed agenda,” the same source declared.
This concern proved accurate when South Africa unilaterally invited Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to the meeting after Morocco declined the invitation.
The real obstacle to Morocco’s potential membership lies in South Africa’s vehement opposition, rooted in Pretoria’s continued support for the Polisario militia – an outdated Cold War era narrative of separatism that threatens Morocco’s territorial integrity.
South Africa persists in backing this Iran and Algeria-supported militia despite the overwhelming international recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Western Sahara provinces.
According to Bloomberg, South African officials have firmly expressed their opposition last October to including Morocco in the BRICS alliance, using the pretext of concerns over the dilution of South Africa’s influence within the group.
This stance was reiterated by unnamed South African officials who spoke to the media outlet on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
Despite South Africa’s opposition, other members of the 2009-founded bloc appear more open to engagement with Morocco. In September, Morocco was invited to participate in the BRICS Forum 2024 on partnership for the new industrial revolution, held in Xiamen, China.
Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Ryad Mezzour, represented the country at the event, which focused on fostering collaboration and exploring potential partnerships with BRICS countries.
