NEW DELHI, June 2: Dr S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, presided over a video conferencing meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) Ministers on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Foreign Ministers from China, Brazil, Russia, and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa.
All the participants praised India for its efforts to maintain the momentum of BRICS collaboration and addressed methods to improve intra-BRICS collaboration in three areas: politics and security, economics and finance, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. While condemning terrorism in all forms they affirmed their determination to fully implement the BRICS Counter Terrorism Strategy, including a result-oriented action plan.
The Ministry of External Affairs in a statement said, the Ministers discussed the social and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasised the importance of establishing and operationalising the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre in time to handle the situation.
During the discussion the ministers called for more inclusive, representative, and participatory global governance to allow for greater and more meaningful participation of developing and least developed countries in decision-making processes and structures, as well as to make it more responsive to contemporary realities.
The meeting also adopted and issued the ‘BRICS Joint Ministerial Statement on Strengthening and Reforming the Multilateral System’. The joint statement emphasised the urgent need for comprehensive strengthening and reform of the entire multilateral architecture, including the United Nations, the Security Council, General Assembly, Secretariat, and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); international financial architecture represented by the IMF and World Bank; multilateral trading systems.
The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, expressed their support for the Paris Agreement, and called for the comprehensive implementation of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025 through all means to ensure its effective realisation. They also welcomed developments and meetings in both Business to Business (B2B) and People to People (P2P) formats, and expressed their desire for greater cooperation in these areas, the MEA statement said.
(Venkatesh Iyer)