The claim about having reservations is “simply not true,” a spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry has said
India denied on Thursday that it has concerns about the proposed expansion of BRICS, a claim that was made earlier this week by Reuters. Brazil has also come out in support of enlarging the bloc, thus refuting the same report by the news agency, which dubbed it the “main holdout” in the process.
Media claims about India’s purported reservations about the planned growth of BRICS are “baseless speculation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi told journalists on Thursday during a weekly media briefing.
“This is simply not true,” he stressed.
On Wednesday, Reuters claimed, citing anonymous sources in the Brazilian government, that Brazil was the BRICS member with the biggest doubts about expansion, replacing India in that role.
Hours later, however, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva contradicted the report, voicing public support for bringing new members into BRICS.
“I am of the opinion that as many countries want to enter, if they are in compliance with the rules we are establishing, we will accept the countries’ entrance,” he told journalists.
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