BRICS expansion could include more than 50 countries

The expansion of BRICS to include countries that want to join the grouping could see it expand to include more than 50 countries, Professor Anil Sooklal, Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS and South Africa's BRICS Sherpa said on Tuesday.

Sooklal said the issue of a BRICS currency or "de-dollarisation" was not on the agenda of the summit.

"We will expand on addressing the idea of deepening interaction in trading in local currencies. Countries want to have greater flexibility and to be less dependent on the dollar."

"There is a movement away from a ‘dollarcentric’ world to a world where you have greater choice."