New Delhi: BRICS foreign ministers will hold a virtual conference on Tuesday and exchange views on the Covid-19 pandemic situation and terror related matters among other things. An official source said they would also take up matters concerning the need for strengthening and reforming the Multilateral System with a view to enhancing its capacity to effectively address the diverse challenges.
“India as the current BRICS Chair will convene the standalone meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/ International Relations. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, will chair the meeting via video conferencing,” an MEA release said.
Matters related to sustainable development, countering Terrorism besides discussing ways to enhance intra-BRICS cooperation and especially people-to-people cooperation would also figure.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Ambassador Carlos Alberto Franco França, Russian Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, and their South African counterpart Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor are expected to participate.
The rotating BRICS Chair would pass on to China in circa 2022.
Sources said, this is the third time India is holding the BRICS Chairship after 2012 and 2016.
BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 percent of the global population, 24 percent of the global GDP and 16 percent of global trade.
As such, BRICS has emerged as a useful platform for consultations on a range of issues of common interest touching upon issues of political, economic and cultural cooperation.
BRICS Foreign Ministers first met in 2006, and the first BRICS Summit was held in 2009.
Over the past fifteen years, the scope of BRICS has steadily expanded to include deliberations and exchange of views on strategic issues such as counter terrorism and cyber security as well as identification of new areas of practical cooperation such as health, education, science and technology and disaster management and resilience, sources said.
