Honduras has issued a formal request to join the BRICS' New Development Bank (NDB), the office of President Xiomara Castro tweeted on Saturday.
The step came as Castro met the bank’s President Dilma Rousseff during her six-day visit to China. The NDB is based in the Chinese city of Shanghai.
The Saturday developments come a week after Rousseff told Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa that the NDB’s board of directors formally authorized a vote on his country’s admission to the bank, which is due to be announced at its next meeting, scheduled for August.
During a BRICS summit in June 2022, member states pledged to enhance the NDB, following the successful admission of Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay in September 2021.
"We look forward to further membership expansion in a gradual and balanced manner in terms of geographic representation and comprising of both developed and developing countries, to enhance the NDB’s international influence as well as the representation and voice of Emerging Market and Developing Countries (EMDCs) in global governance," the 75-point joint declaration released after the summit read.
The NDB, which was established in 2014, aims to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging markets and developing countries through the provision of loans, guarantees, and other financial instruments.
BRICS currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, five economies which account for more than 40% of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Several other countries intend to join BRICS, including Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Egypt.
BRICS members, which have repeatedly called for using an alternative currency to the US dollar, successfully counter the policy of economic diktat pursued by Washington and the EU, which has stifled the world economy.