EAM Jaishankar to chair BRICS foreign ministers meeting today; COVID-19 situation, regional, global issues on agenda

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to chair a meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) foreign ministers through video conferencing on Tuesday. In this meeting, the leaders will exchange views on COVID-19 pandemic, global and regional issues of concern, sustainable development, and countering terrorism, said a government statement.

"India as the current BRICS Chair will convene the standalone meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/ International Relations on June 1, 2021," the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.

"The ministers are expected to exchange views on the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the need for strengthening and reforming the multilateral system with a view to enhancing its capacity to effectively address the diverse challenges of our time and to adapt them to contemporary realities, on global and regional issues of concern, sustainable development, countering terrorism besides discussing ways to enhance intra-BRICS cooperation, especially people-to-people cooperation," it said. 

Brazil Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and South African Foreign Minister Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor are expected to participate in the meeting. 

The foreign ministers are also likely to discuss the need for reforming the multilateral system and ways to enhance cooperation in countering terrorism, the MEA said.

India is hosting the meeting as the chair of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa). The foreign ministers are also likely to delve into ways to enhance the intra-BRICS cooperation, especially people-to-people cooperation.

Notably, the BRICS is known as an influential bloc that represents over 360 crore people and its member countries have a combined GDP of USD 16.6 trillion.

India is the BRICS chair for 2021. This is the third time that the country is holding the BRICS chairship after 2012 and 2016.

India's chairship of the grouping has coincided with its 15th anniversary, making it an opportune moment to review its work. The theme and approach for India's BRICS chairship is "BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus".

The BRICS brings together five of the world's largest developing countries, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade. The foreign ministers of the bloc first met in 2006 and the first BRICS summit was held in 2009.

The New Development Bank (NDB), the flagship outcome of BRICS, continues to fund projects in infrastructure and sustainable development. It is learnt that 76 projects worth over USD 28 billion have so far been approved by the NDB in BRICS countries. 

(With Agency Inputs)