Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s departure for South Africa on Tuesday to attend the 15th BRICS summit, India on Monday maintained that it had an open mind on the issue of expanding the five-member grouping which has nearly 40 countries knocking on its door for admission.

Of these countries which have voiced an interest in being made part of BRICS, 22 are said to have already submitted formal requests for membership. With China, in particular, being the most interested in expanding BRICS so that it can become a counter-weight to G7, India is perceived as the holdout country though New Delhi has never spoken out against expansion while underscoring the fact that this diplomatic forum, too, functions on the principle of consensus.

India’s main concern vis-à-vis a BRICS expansion is the apprehension that it could become a source of heft for China to promote its geo-political agenda.

Asked about India’s position on a BRICS expansion, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra in his briefing on the Prime Minister’s visit to South Africa and Greece said: "There is no doubt that there is considerable interest in many countries to become a part of BRICS, to associate themselves with BRICS, to leverage different opportunities that BRICS and the cooperation under BRICS present for itself. In so far as a BRICS expansion is concerned, we have been very clear from the start that we have a positive intent and an open mind when it comes to a BRICS expansion.

"BRICS works under the modality and principle of consensus, and all the BRICS countries have to have full consensus on how they would want BRICS expanded, what should be the guiding principles of that expansion, what would be the criteria for such expansion. Those are the subject matters of ongoing current discussions between the sherpas of BRICS in South Africa, and I would not want to pre-judge the outcome of these discussions except to say that India has a positive intent and open mind when it comes to a BRICS expansion."

At the last BRICS annual summit, the leaders of the five member countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — had mandated discussions on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures for a BRICS expansion. This process has been going on since and India had repeatedly denied "insinuations" and speculation that New Delhi has reservations about expansion.

Given the amount of interest a BRICS expansion has generated in recent months, this is expected to be discussed in considerable detail at the Johannesburg summit since none of the five-member countries are openly opposed to it. Among the countries which have expressed an interest in joining BRICS are Argentina, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Venezuela, Egypt and Cuba.

BRICS — which held its first summit in 2009 — has been expanded only once, in 2010, to include South Africa.