Kazakhstan Refused To Join BRICS

• 30.05.2025, 18:56

President Tokayev stated that BRICS "has "no charter, no secretariat, and no programs.

Kazakhstan has no plans to join BRICS, the republic's President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev told Al Jazeera in an interview. He said he is guided by "pragmatic" considerations and considers the organization's partner status sufficient. Tokayev said the question is the usefulness of full membership and pointed out that BRICS "has no charter, no secretariat, no programs." "Let's see how effective BRICS will be as an international organization. For now, Kazakhstan will remain an observer, and time will tell," he concluded.

In October 2024, presidential adviser Berik Uali said that Kazakhstan had received offers to join BRICS, but Tokayev decided to refrain from such a step, including because of "aspects related to the prospects for the development of the association." Uali then stressed that the expediency of joining BRICS was considered "from the point of view of Kazakhstan's national interests," and the president preferred the UN "as a universal and alternative-free organization in which all pressing international problems can and should be discussed."

Kazakhstan became a partner of BRICS on January 1, 2025. The organization itself appeared in 2006, now it includes Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. Since February, BRICS has put on pause the admission of new members, explaining it with "institutional problems" arising from the increasing number of participants.

The announcement to halt BRICS expansion came amid threats by US President Donald Trump to impose 100 percent duties on the association's countries for trying to create a new currency and move away from the dollar. After that, Russia, which has been actively promoting the idea since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, disassociated itself from the project. On February 13, the U.S. leader announced that "BRICS is dead.