South Africa is aggressively pushing to join the "BRIC" group of nations, its Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said yesterday in Beijing.

BRIC refers to the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The visiting minister, who gave a speech entitled "South Africa and South-South Cooperation", was in Beijing yesterday before departing to Shanghai, the last stop of her four-day visit to China.