News Feed

The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.

Show More
News Feed

Cuba asks to join BRICS as partner country in letter to Putin

2 min read
Cuba asks to join BRICS as partner country in letter to Putin
(From L to R) Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a photo during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 23, 2023. (Giangluigi Guercia/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Cuba has requested to join the BRICS group as a "partner country" in an official letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Cuban Foreign Ministry official said on Oct. 8.

BRICS, composed of Russia, China, India, Brazil, and other nations, is a group of emerging economies often portrayed as a counterweight to the Western-led world.

"Cuba has officially requested to join the BRICS as a 'partner country' through a letter to the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who holds the presidency of the group," said Carlos M. Pereira, the director of bilateral relations at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, in an X post shared by the ministry's official account.

Russian Ambassador to Cuba Viktor Koronelli also told the Russian state agency TASS on Oct. 7 that Havana has officially applied for a partnership with BRICS.

Four new members – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates – joined the international organization at the start of 2024. This marked the group's first expansion since December 2010, when South Africa became a member.

The "partner country" status, which does not mean full membership, has been promoted by BRICS diplomats as an alternative way to engage countries of the Global South.

Cuba requested to join the organization as a full member in 2023 but did not receive a positive response.

The Caribbean island country ruled for decades by the communist party has deepened cooperation with Moscow over their shared rivalry with the U.S.

Russian warships briefly docked at Cuba in June as a likely demonstration of strength to Washington, which has backed Ukraine against Russian invasion forces.

Why ideology still matters for an expanding BRICS
For Argentina’s newly-elected president, Javier Milei, ideology is the beating heart of politics. The economist, TV show personality, and self-professed anarcho-capitalist built his campaign on passionate support for a hands-off government and free market principles. His forthright approach also e…
Avatar
Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

Read more