On September 9, 2021, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi chaired the 13th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Summit 2021 virtually on the theme ‘ BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’ .
- The summit saw the adoption of the ‘New Delhi Declaration’.
Participants:
The Summit saw the participation of all other BRICS Leaders – President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Xi Jinping of China, and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa.
- The meeting will also be attended by India’s National Security Adviser (NS) Ajit Doval, President of the New Development Bank (NDB) Marcos Troyjo, the pro tempore chair of the BRICS Business Council, Onkar Kanwar and pro tempore Chair of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, Sangita Reddy.
Highlights of Meeting:
i.All BRICS Leaders agreed to continue their cooperation towards achieving strong and inclusive growth in a post-pandemic.
ii.Indian PM appreciated the cooperation received from BRICS partners which led to the initiation of several new initiatives including the first BRICS Digital Health Summit; the first BRICS Ministerial Joint Statement on multilateral reforms; a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan; an Agreement on cooperation in field of remote-sensing satellites; a virtual BRICS vaccine Research & Development Centre; BRICS Alliance on Green Tourism, etc.
- Despite COVID-19 in 2021, over 150 BRICS meetings and events were organised.
iii.Indian side called for enhanced BRICS cooperation under the motto of ‘Build-back, Resiliently, Innovatively, Credibly and Sustainably’ where:
- Build-back is enhancing speed and accessibility of vaccination
- Resilience is diversifying pharma and vaccine production capacities
- Innovation is using digital tools for public good
- Credibility is ensuring reform of multilateral institutions
- Sustainably is articulating cooperation on environmental and climate issues.
iv.BRICS partners agreed to accelerate implementation of the BRICS Action Plan on Counter-Terrorism.
v.The summit also supported India’s perspective on Afghanistan where there is strong condemnation of terrorism. India emphasizing not to use Afghan territory for terrorism or for drug trafficking in the ongoing developments.
Points to be noted:
i.This is the second time PM Narendra Modi chaired the BRICS Summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.This is the third time that India will be hosting the BRICS Summit after 2012 and 2016.
ii.The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the 15th anniversary of BRICS.
iii.Russia had hosted the 2020 BRICS meeting.
Recent Related News:
On July 8, 2021, the 12th meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) S&T (Science & Technology) Steering Committee was hosted by Department of Science and Technology (DST), India where Indian was represented by Sanjeev Kumar Varshney, Advisor & Head International Cooperation.
About BRICS(Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa):
Establishment– 2006
2021’s Chair – India
