Libya's Acting Foreign Minister in the Government of National Unity, Taher Al-Baour, confirmed the government's interest in joining the BRICS group and in prospects for cooperation with its member states.
Al-Baour said in statements to the Russian TASS Agency on Tuesday that "the Libyan side is interested in joining BRISia" He siad the possibility of this was being discussed in government circles in Libya.
He added, on the sidelines of the ministerial conference of the Russian-African Partnership Forum: "We are interested in joining, and this is a guarantee of the value and benefit that Libya can obtain from joining the group. This requires a deep study and evaluation of the benefits that Libya will reap."
However, he pointed out at the same time that "Libya was not invited to the recent BRICS summit, despite its desire to attend, at least to see the opportunities provided by this group."
Russia has hosted the Russian-African Partnership Forum in Sochi, in an attempt to deepen relations between Moscow and African capitals.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs in the parallel government, Abdul Hadi Al-Huwaij, previously revealed that his government was studying joining BRICS, indicating that the government had taken steps to join at least as an observer in the first phase, as a set of studies were being prepared in this regard, but "these decisions required discussion with various political circles."
