Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 13th BRICS Summit today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired the 13th BRICS Summit in a virtual format. In his opening remarks, PM Modi said India has received full cooperation from all members during its chairship of BRICS. "I thank all members for this," he added.
Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among those who attended the virtual meeting.
Here are the Highlights on what PM Modi said:
- BRICS has made many achievements in the last one and a half decades.
- Today we are an influential voice for the emerging economies of the world. This platform has also been useful for focusing on the priorities of developing countries.
- We have to ensure that BRICS is more productive in next 15 years.
- The theme that India has chosen for its presidency reflects this priority - BRICS at 15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.
- Despite Covid situation this year, over 150 BRICS meetings and events were organised. Of these, over 20 were ministerial-level. We tried to expand BRICS agenda. BRICS achieved many firsts this year as well.
- It was the first time that BRICS took a shared position on "Strengthening and Improving Multilateral Systems". We have also adopted the BRICS "Counter Terrorism Action Plan."
- Recently the first "BRICS Digital Health Conference" was organised. This is an innovative step to increase health access with the help of technology. Our Water Resources Minister will meet for the first time in BRICS format in November.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the BRICS summit and spoke about the Afghanistan crisis. "Global security has faced serious challenges and system of strategic stability has gone all down hell. US and allies' withdrawal from Afghanistan has led to new crisis and it is still unclear how it will affect regional and global security," he said.