Ehtiopia has made a formal application to join the BRICS economic group that is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This means that Ethiopia is betting that these nations are the economic and security block to join as opposed to NATO.
“We expect BRICS will give us a positive response to the request we have made,” foreign ministry spokesperson Meles Alem told journalists about this application.
Ethiopia has the second largest population in Africa and is resource rich but its economy is not. It ranks 59th in the world according to the International Monetary Fund but it has petrolium, natural gas, gold and other minerals.
Brics accounts for 40% of the world’s population and about 25% of the global economy but that number will grow if resource-rich countries sign on.
