Six new countries to join BRICS as group seeks to counter G7

He told the audience that his nation looks forward to further developing economic and financial relations and emphasised cooperation to tackle common challenges. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged BRICS leaders to restore faith in multilateralism and invoked the spectre of the First World War for failing to do so. "I have come to Johannesburg with a simple message: in a fracturing world with overwhelming crises, there is simply no alternative to cooperation," he told the summit. "We cannot afford a world with a divided global economy and financial system; with diverging strategies on technology including artificial intelligence; and with…