Dacic: Cooperation with BRICS beneficial but membership in it rules out EU membership

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Friday cooperation with BRICS was always beneficial but that membership in the organisation was at odds with Brussels's positions and ruled out EU membership.

Speaking to Happy TV, Dacic said cooperation with BRICS was a strategic foreign policy affair.

It is always beneficial and Serbia is always working on it because such an organisation has its advantages, especially amid the present global foreign policy disputes, he said.

Dacic noted that Serbia, which he said aimed to become a part of the European family, could not even be a Non-Aligned Movement member even though Belgrade had been its co-founder.

Although BRICS is, above all, an economic organisation, the EU is also seen as an economic organisation that has evolved into a political community, and Brussels does not look favourably upon BRICS, he said.

"Serbia would not receive a positive assessment from the EU if we were to join BRICS," Dacic concluded.

BRICS is comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.