OREANDA-NEWS Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleynik will represent Minsk at the events of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg next week, the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Glaze told RIA Novosti.

"We have a corresponding invitation, and our delegation definitely plans to be there. The main theme of the upcoming summit is close and understandable to us, it sounds like "BRICS and Africa: partnership for joint accelerated growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism". So for the first time Belarus will take part in the events of this summit (BRICS - ed.)," said the Eye.

He noted that we are talking about the BRICS Africa-Outreach and BRICS Plus dialogues, which will be held next week in Johannesburg.

"On behalf of the head of state, our delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik," the official representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
He added that this opportunity will also traditionally be used to organize meetings of the head of the Belarusian delegation with colleagues from a number of other countries on the sidelines of the summit.

The BRICS summit, which will be held in Johannesburg on August 22-24, will be attended by the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, Russia will be represented by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would participate in the summit via videoconference.

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said that 23 countries have officially declared their desire to join the BRICS. Minsk in May appealed to the BRICS members for admission to the association, the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti earlier.