BRICS quietly grew from 5 countries to 11 — here's exactly who joined, when, and the one holdout
BRICS added six new members in under two years, yet one still hasn't confirmed it joined. Here's a country-by-country timeline of who's actually in the bloc ahead of Delhi's summit.
- Sep 11, 2026,
- Updated Sep 11, 2026 6:27 PM IST
- 1/5
Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates formally became full BRICS members on January 1, 2024, after accepting invitations extended at the August 2023 Johannesburg summit — the bloc's first expansion since South Africa joined in 2011.
- 2/5
Saudi Arabia was invited alongside the other four in 2023, but its own officials have repeatedly said it hasn't formally accepted. Despite this, both Brazil's 2025 and India's 2026 BRICS presidencies have officially referred to "eleven member countries," Saudi Arabia included, and its foreign minister is expected in New Delhi this weekend regardless.
- 3/5
Indonesia's accession was approved back in 2023 but took over a year to formalize, becoming effective only in January 2025 — making it the bloc's 11th and most recent full member, ahead of any decisions expected at this week's summit.
- 4/5
The partner-country category was created at the October 2024 Kazan summit to let countries engage with BRICS without full membership. It started with nine nations — Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan — before Vietnam was added as the tenth partner earlier in 2026.
- 5/5
More than 30 countries have formally applied or expressed interest in full membership, and expansion decisions are explicitly on the agenda for the September 12–13 New Delhi summit — with Nigeria seen as the leading African candidate and Turkey actively lobbying for Chinese backing.