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 by video conferencing on Tuesday. In this meeting, the leaders will change views on COVID-19 pandemic, global and regional issues of concern, sustainable improvement, and countering terrorism, mentioned a authorities assertion.

“India as the present BRICS Chair will convene the standalone meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/ International Relations on June 1, 2021,” the Ministry of External Affairs mentioned 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 mentioned. 

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 anticipated to take part within the meeting. 

The foreign ministers are additionally possible to focus on the necessity for reforming the multilateral system and methods to improve cooperation in countering terrorism, the MEA mentioned.

India is internet hosting the meeting because the chair of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa). The foreign ministers are additionally possible to delve into methods to improve the intra-BRICS cooperation, particularly people-to-people cooperation.

Notably, the BRICS is named an influential bloc that represents over 360 crore individuals and its member nations have a mixed GDP of USD 16.6 trillion.

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

India’s chairship of the grouping has coincided with its fifteenth anniversary, making it an opportune second to assessment its work. The theme and strategy for India’s BRICS chairship is “BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus”.

The BRICS brings collectively 5 of the world’s largest growing nations, representing 41 per cent of the global inhabitants, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global commerce. The foreign ministers of the bloc first met in 2006 and the primary BRICS summit was held in 2009.

The New Development Bank (NDB), the flagship final result of BRICS, continues to fund initiatives in infrastructure and sustainable improvement. It is learnt that 76 initiatives price over USD 28 billion have up to now been accredited by the NDB in BRICS nations. 

(With Agency Inputs)