Kirill Babayev, President of the National Coordinating Center for International Business Cooperation and Director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview that BRICS intends to seriously consider Sri Lanka's application to join the organization. This was also stated by Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Janita Liyanage, pointing out that the desire to join is being discussed at the International Security Conference in St. Petersburg. Babayev mentioned that Sri Lanka is one of the many Asian countries that are interested in joining the BRICS. He stressed the importance of Sri Lanka as a South Asian state with important trade and economic ties with other Eurasian countries. This year, Russia assumed the BRICS presidency. Since the beginning of the year, the membership of the organization has expanded significantly to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, thereby increasing the population of the participating countries to 3.6 billion people – almost half of the global population. These countries make a significant contribution to the global economy, providing more than 40% of global oil production and about a quarter of global exports of goods.
