South Africa will be hosting the fifteenth edition of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg from August 21. The event, which will be presided over by South African Prime Minister Cyril Ramaphosa, will be attended by 40 participants, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The expansion of the BRICS membership will be the primary focus of this edition of the summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the BRICS summit virtually due to arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Former Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, highlighted that the five governments have, in principle, agreed to expansion. However, they are currently completely focused on developing criteria that will really define the characteristics and features of new members.

“The criteria for BRICS expansion is being finalised and the expansion will come only thereafter,” Bhatia said.

Katherine Hadda, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told CNBC-TV18 that the BRICS members need to have an agreement on key issues before agreeing to or implementing the expansion of the grouping.

China, Russia and South Africa are keen on expanding while India and Brazil are seemingly in slight disagreement on expansion, she informed.

Any reaction from the US on expansion of the BRICS would come as surprise as it is still a very aspirational organisation, Hadda added.

Brahma Chellaney, Strategic Affairs Expert, pointed that before expanding an important initiative like BRICS, the countries should build a cohesive position on key issues. He also stressed that existing BRICS economies have so far failed to come up with a unified position on many key issues which will make it very difficult for 28 countries to come together on issues.

BRICS Unified Currency system

There is an increasing cooperation in trade, investment and other financial domains but the common BRICS currency is not on the agenda, Bhatia stated.

"There is hardly any possibility on BRICS leadership agreeing on a common currency because the common currency is the end product of a very close and very sophisticated financial integration in the economies of the five member countries," Bhatia said.

Rajiv Bhatia said that the BRICS countries are trying to use more and more national currency in their bilateral trade transactions and that is certainly bound to increase.

The New Development Bank is crucial for the success of BRICS, he informed CNBC-TV18.

"The New Development Bank is important with the total capital base of $100 billion of which a significant amount has already been allocated for various projects," Bhatia said further.

The focus should be more on the recapitalisation of the New Development Bank that also brings into context the question of BRICS expansion.

Meanwhile, Katherine Hadda also stressed that India does not seem to be in favour of unified currency system as the world has changed significantly since the BRICS came together 15 years ago.

Hadda pointed out that India is very concerned about China’s role in global financial system and may oppose anything that gives prominence to Chinese Yuan.

Watch video for full interview