Foreign Ministers of countries belonging to the BRICS framework -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and others -- have opened a two-day meeting in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. This is the first meeting of the kind since Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and other nations joined the group this year.

At the opening, Russian Foreign Minister and venue chair Sergey Lavrov said the expansion of BRICS clearly shows the formation of a multipolar world order.

Participants are expected to discuss security and economic cooperation.

Russia's Foreign Ministry says that, including China's top diplomat Wang Yi and foreign ministers from other member nations, they expect representatives from over 20 countries from the Middle East, Asia and Africa that are friendly to Russia to participate. It underlines strong interest in the BRICS group.

Russia is apparently using the occasion to increase the presence of the BRICS framework and boost ties with Global South countries to counter the Western bloc.