On Jan. 9, 2024, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when addressing a symposium on the international situation and China's foreign relations in 2023 that when China assumed the rotating presidency of the BRICS in 2022, President Xi Jinping proposed that the BRICS countries should open their doors to seek development and open their arms to promote cooperation, and called for the inclusion of new members and the pooling of new strengths. All parties agreed to take the BRICS Year of China as an opportunity to launch the expansion process. After a year of preparatory consultations, leaders of the five countries made a political decision during the 2023 Johannesburg Summit to formally welcome new members to the BRICS family.

Wang Yi stated that the expansion had created a milestone in the development of the BRICS mechanism and opened a new era of unity and self-improvement for the "Global South." The enlarged BRICS will undoubtedly promote the development of the global governance system in a just and rational direction and enhance the representation and voice of the "Global South" in international affairs.