In an interview with Asharq, Anand Kumar Srivastava, Chief Operating Officer of the New Development Bank (NDB) under the BRICS group, expressed hope that Morocco would join the financial institution. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference held on Monday in Rabat on environmentally sustainable government procurement, Srivastava stated: «Currently, Morocco is not a member of the New Development Bank. Membership begins with the country initiating contact with BRICS, followed by a formal process. Afterward, a capital contribution is required to become a full member, at which point the country can benefit from the bank's financing operations». He added, «We hope that Morocco will become a member as we are currently in an expansion phase». The NDB was established in 2015 by the founding BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bangladesh joined the bank in 2023. That same year, during a BRICS summit hosted by South Africa and attended by several African countries, reports emerged suggesting that Morocco had applied for BRICS membership. However, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this, affirming that Morocco maintains strategic partnerships with several BRICS countries without pursuing formal membership. Morocco enjoys strong diplomatic and economic ties with most of the bloc's founding members, with the exception of South Africa, due to its position on the Western Sahara issue. Bloomberg previously reported that Johannesburg had objected to Morocco's potential accession to the BRICS group.
