Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE are to become full members from 1 January 2024, the group announced at its summit in South Africa.

Chinese President Xi Jinping whose country is the most powerful in the group of non-western states that represents a quarter of the world’s economy said the expansion is also a new starting point for Brics cooperation as it will bring new vigour to the Brics cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the force for world peace and development.

Calls to enlarge Brics had dominated the agenda at its three-day summit in Johannesburg and exposed divisions among the bloc over the pace and criteria for admitting new members but the group, which makes decisions by consensus, had agreed on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the Brics expansion process.

About 50 other heads of state and government attended the summit, underscoring what Brics leaders say is the attractiveness of its message.

The decision to broaden the grouping also reflects a lack of progress in deepening the existing Brics alliance, which despite representing a third of global GDP has diverging interests — ranging from China's rise as a global superpower, to India's nonalignment, to Brazil's status as a farm exporter.

Some of the new members, notably Saudi Arabia and Iran, have a history of troubled relations, holding out little prospect of coherent action beyond strengthening the representation of the Middle East and Africa in the bloc.