Riyadh taking part in BRICS, still undecided on full membership — senior diplomat
MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia has not yet made a final decision on whether or not to become a full member of BRICS, though the kingdom is now fully participating in the work of the association, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a press conference.
"There is no doubt that Riyadh participates in BRICS. This is an indisputable fact. Moreover, for almost half a year now, since the chairmanship passed to Russia, we have repeatedly welcomed representatives of the kingdom at our events, and they have participated in relevant meetings and worked alongside everyone else. Having said that, I will also say that we once again received a signal from our Saudi colleagues in Nizhny Novgorod that their internal processes related to the assessment of their formal, official invitation to join BRICS have not been completed yet," the senior diplomat said.
The deputy minister drew attention to the fact that Saudi representatives sometimes "do not participate in the entire range of events, but are involved in those cases and in those formats that are most comfortable for them due to the incompleteness of their internal processes." "We respect this position," he added.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud did not attend the session on the first day of the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Nizhny Novgorod. He arrived at the venue at the end of the first day of the meeting, held a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and participated in the meeting on the second day.
Ryabkov emphasized that further work with Saudi Arabia within the association will be based on the fact that the kingdom interacts with all BRICS partners on an equal and "mutually respectful basis."