New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to India on Saturday to kick off a two-day BRICS summit aimed at protecting developing economies from the global impact of wars in Ukraine and West Asia.
The other leaders attending the summit in New Delhi are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, New Development Bank (NDB) President Dilma Rousseff and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Chief Zou Jiayi are also attending the BRICS summit.
The theme of India’s BRICS presidency is Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.
The summit at New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam assumed greater significance as it is taking place against the backdrop of a global economy facing the adverse impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, the West Asia crisis, especially the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policies.
Global trade can move forward only when sea lanes are secure, supply routes remain open, and seafarers are safe. That is why India is a staunch advocate of freedom of navigation and the safety of seafarers, Modi said at the BRICS Business Forum Friday, indicating India’s concerns over the escalating situation in West Asia.
India’s chairship of the grouping centred on the four pillars resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
Under the resilience pillar, India has been focusing on strengthening collective cooperation in areas such as health, agriculture, food, energy, disaster risk reduction and supply chains, officials said.
Enhancing cooperation in trade, investment, connectivity and high technology will also be high on the agenda of the summit, they said.
New Delhi has also been pressing the grouping for deploying new and emerging technologies such as digital public infrastructure, fintech, artificial intelligence and knowledge sharing to enable effective service delivery and future-ready growth.
In addition to these areas, the leaders will exchange views on strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation on common priorities and share perspectives on global and regional matters of mutual importance, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam became BRICS partner countries last year.
BRICS emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.
