President Mohamed Morsi is still ardent about making Egypt join the ranks of the world's growing economies known as BRICS, said Presidential Spokesperson Ehab Fahmy in a press conference on Monday. The press conference was held to announce results of Morsi's recent trip to Brazil, a member state of BRICS. “One of the key reasons for the president's visit to Brazil was to strengthen bilateral relations between Egypt and Brazil," said Fahmy. “Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff welcomed the idea of Egypt joining BRICS." Fahmy also said that Brazil has agreed to increase investments in Egypt, while stressing that Egypt is keen on “establishing balanced relations with all countries", regardless of joint-projects or special affairs with specific countries. He also stated that Egypt's foreign affairs are based on “mutual respect" and recognising state sovereignty. Morsi and his Brazilian counterpart also discussed trade volume between the two countries, tourism cooperation, and implementing programmes to eradicate poverty. The two leaders also tackled the ensuing violence in Syria. Morsi's trip to Brazil was the last of a series of trips made to BRICS countries. Morsi had pledged for Egypt to join the BRICS bloc during his visit to India two months ago where the announcement was publicised in an Indian newspaper. "I am hoping BRICS would one day become E-BRICS where E stands for Egypt. I hope E-BRICS would emerge when we start moving the economy," he said during his visit to India. He lauded the proposal for the establishment of a BRICS bank that would “support countries to achieve high growth rates and supplement the role of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and similar institutions". BRICS, acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, encompasses a bloc of the world's large, fast-growing economies.
