BRICS leaders are weighing rules for admitting new members to the bloc of developing countries at a summit as splits over its future direction risk undermining its ambition to give the "Global South" more clout in world affairs.
Bloc heavyweights China and Russia - whose President Vladimir Putin is attending the meeting virtually - want to reinforce BRICS amid heightened tensions resulting from the Ukraine war and Beijing's growing rivalry with Washington.
They are seeking to use the three-day summit in South Africa's commercial capital Johannesburg to forge the grouping, which also includes Brazil and India, into a counterweight to the West.
But longstanding divisions re-emerged on the first day of talks on Tuesday, notably voiced by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said the grouping should not seek to rival the United States and Group of Seven wealthy economies.
Lula and counterparts Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met for dinner and a mini-retreat on Tuesday evening.
The question of enlarging BRICS has topped the agenda at the summit and exposed the kinds of divergence of vision that have long plagued the grouping.
China and Russia are keen to expand BRICS to give the bloc more global clout.
South Africa's Ramaphosa said on Tuesday his country's stance was similar to China's while Brazil is concerned expanding BRICS will dilute its influence, although it wants to see neighbour Argentina join the bloc.
An Indian official familiar with the Tuesday evening discussions between the leaders said Modi indicated his country was open to expansion but "there have to be ground rules about how it should happen and who can join".
More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials.
Of them, almost two dozen have formally asked to be admitted.
While no new members are expected to be admitted to BRICS during the summit, leaders are weighing a framework and criteria for joining, details of which could be included in a joint declaration to be finalised on Wednesday.
BRICS remains a disparate group, ranging from South Africa, a relative minnow that is nonetheless Africa's most developed country, to China, the world's second-biggest economy.
Russia's Putin, who is wanted under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, is keen to show the West he still has friends.
But India, wary of Chinese dominance, has increasingly reached out to the West, as has Brazil under Lula.
Beyond the enlargement question, boosting the use of member states' local currencies in trade and financial transactions to lessen dependency on the US dollar is also on the summit agenda.
South African organisers say there will be no discussions however of a common BRICS currency, an idea floated by Brazil as an alternative to dollar-dependence.
Putin used his speech at the summit to urge BRICS leaders to defend Russia's war in Ukraine and praise the grouping as a counterbalance to US global dominance.
Speaking by video link, he repeated the Kremlin narrative that his invasion, condemned by Ukraine and the West as an imperialist land grab, was a forced response by Russia to Kyiv's and Washington's hostile actions.
"Our actions in Ukraine are dictated by only one thing - to end the war that was unleashed by the West and its satellites against the people who live in the Donbas," Putin said, referring to the eastern part of Ukraine where Russian proxies have been fighting the Ukrainian army since 2014.
"I want to note that it was the desire to maintain their hegemony in the world, the desire of some countries to maintain this hegemony that led to the severe crisis in Ukraine."
Ramaphosa, who in June presented an African peace plan separately to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in response to Putin's speech BRICS members would continue to support efforts to bring the conflict to an end.
