Saudi Arabia freezes Brics membership, says report amid Trump’s 100% tariff threat

Saudi Arabia has frozen the bid to join Brics, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The agency quoted Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy advisor to Kremlin, as saying that Russia has frozen its accession to Brics.

Russia currently holds the presidency of Brics.

Saudi Arabia was invited to join Brics in 2023 as the group was expanding at the time. While the group originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, it has expanded over the years to include Egypt, Iran, the UAE, and Ethiopia.

The report comes weeks after US President-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Brics members if the member-state adopted an own currency in a bid to overthrow US dollar. Even as Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar has said that there is such plan, Trump’s camp has remained critical of the bloc.

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Even though Saudi Arabia had been invited to join Brics and even though it had engaged with the bloc, it had made it clear that it had not yet joined the bloc.

In October, Russia had to withdraw a statement that mentioned Saudi Arabia as a member of Brics.

Ahead of the Brics Summit in Russia’s Kazan, the Kremlin withdrew a statement issued a previous week that mentioned Saudi Arabia as a member and instead Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The summit will take place now, we will supply additional information on who will represent Saudi Arabia, whether it will be represented at this summit, and we will draw conclusions from this.”