Nigeria, May 16 -- BRICS is expanding - but perhaps inevitably, more members mean more opportunities for disagreement, including between African members.

This became apparent at the recent BRICS foreign ministers meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Unusually, the gathering failed to issue a consensus communique because of objections from the two new African members who joined in 2023 - Egypt and Ethiopia.

Until then, the only African member was South Africa, which Brazil, Russia, India and China admitted in 2010. At their 2023 Johannesburg summit, the five BRICS leaders invited Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join. Argentina declined, and Saudi Arabia said nothing, so BRICS became a club of nine wit...