BRIC now becomes BRICS with entry of South Africa: Pranab

Paris, Feb 19 (ANI): Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has confirmed that South Africa was the latest entry in the BRIC-Brazil, Russia, India and China association of countries.

He said this at Paris, the French capital on Friday.

Interacting to mediapersons, he said that the delegates of the different BRIC countries, henceforth BRICS with the entry of South Africa, exchanged their views on common financial issues during the multilateral meet.

"Yes South Africa has joined this meeting, we have welcomed South Africa now BRIC is no longer BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) it is BRICS, one 'S' has been added to it that denotes South Africa.

"BRIC meeting normally takes place to identify the common position as far as possible on different issues which we discuss in the G20. From that point of view we shared our views, we exchange our opinions and I do feel there is convergence of views on many issues but in international relations one did not expect that there would be convergence on every issue," said Mukherjee.

The finance ministers of the BRICS held their first meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Paris conference.

The first BRICS meeting will held be hosted by China in the month of April. (ANI)