Colombia asks to join Brics.

Lula da Silva pledges his support for Colombia's inclusion in the BRICS after a setback with Argentina. At the beginning of the year, President Javier Milei announced that the country had given up on joining the bloc of developing nations

The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will sponsor the inclusion of Colombia in Brics. On Wednesday 17th, Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked the country to join the bloc of developing nations, which underwent its biggest expansion last year and now has ten members.

"President Petro expressed Colombia's interest in joining BRICS as a full member as soon as possible, and President Lula welcomed this initiative and pledged to promote Colombia's candidacy," the foreign ministries said in a joint statement.

At the beginning of the year, Argentina's president, Javier Milei, announced that the country had given up on joining the BRICS, which is seen as a forum with an increasingly direct influence from China and as a challenge to the economic and political dominance of the West and the G7.

Brazil acted in favor of Argentina at the last summit and, with the refusal of the new government, the idea of a certain regional balance in the expansion, a criterion defended by Brasilia, has been lost. The country remains the only member from Latin America.

Brazil was initially against the expansion of the BRICS, believing it could dilute its leading role, but ended up giving in to Beijing's offensive.

Each of the members sponsored the new countries behind the scenes and all had their invitations approved by consensus, as is customary in the group. A new expansion process is expected to take place at the Kazan summit in Russia in October. Indonesia, Venezuela and Pakistan are also looking to join the BRICS.

The current members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"Maybe our dear Colombia can join the BRICS," said Lula in a statement after meeting Petro.

Colombia will take part in meetings of the G20, coordinated this year by Brazil, and has expressed interest in joining Lula's proposal for a global alliance against hunger and poverty. On the other hand, the Brazilian president said that he would certainly take part in the COP-16 on Biodiversity in Cali in October.

Gustavo Petro and Lula da Silva also repudiated the new sanctions imposed by the US against Venezuela. They say that the United States is worsening the political situation in Venezuela and not fulfilling its promises.

The two had recently criticized Maduro's government for barring two candidates from taking part. Petro and Lula are known to be political allies of Maduro. Relations between the three seemed to have deteriorated, but recently Gustavo Petro visited Caracas where he met with Maduro, whom he called his comrade.

Colombia and Brazil:

Milei:

US: