So, Egypt, you want to be a BRICS country?

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy has spent the past three days in India on his first state visit to the country. Before heading to New Delhi, though, he floated an odd — and more than a little ambitious — idea.

"I am hoping BRICS would one day become E-BRICS where E stands for Egypt," he told India’s The Hindu in an interview in Cairo published this week.

It’s a bold proposal. The Kremlin has acknowledged the comments but didn’t seem particularly enthused about the idea, and it’s unclear whether Morsy broached the subject in his meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The BRICS — that’s Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — are an economic alliance of top-tier rising powers, the crème de la crème of the developing world. Egypt? Not so much.

Let’s put this in perspective. The average GDP of the BRICS countries in 2011 (in current U.S. dollars, according to the World Bank) was $2.78 trillion dollars. Egypt? $230 billion. The country’s development isn’t exactly in high gear, either. The instability of the revolution has dealt a blow to Egypt’s economy, and its estimated growth rate for 2012 is a meager 2 percent, which places it behind four of five BRICS countries. Even as Morsy was meeting with Singh, he was sharing the front page of Egyptian dailies with the news that BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai are planning to withdraw from the Egyptian market as new customs laws take effect.

Morsy knows this, and clarified that he hopes "the E-BRICS would emerge when we start moving the economy." So it’s something of a longer-term goal. Perhaps Morsy might consider one of these starter coalitions instead? Then again, the MIKT (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey) countries, which are moving beyond "emerging market" territory, have an average GDP of $973 billion, so it might still be a stretch. In the same interview with The Hindu, Morsy expressed a desire to be more active in the Non-Aligned Movement. It’s probably a good place to start; the NAM is far less discriminatory.