NEW DELHI – BRICS is an influential voice for emerging economies of the world and the countries must ensure that it becomes more productive in the next 15 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his opening remarks of the 13th BRICS summit, being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro.
“It is a matter of great pleasure for me and India to chair this summit for the 15th anniversary of the summit. India has received full cooperation from all BRICS partners during its chairmanship. I am deeply grateful to all of you for this. The BRICS platform has witnessed several achievements in one and half decades,” he said.
“Today we are an influential voice for emerging economies of the world. This platform has also been useful for focussing attention on the priories of the developing nations as well,” he added.
Thanking the partners for full cooperation during India’s presidency, PM Modi said BRICS has also adopted a counter-terrorism action plan.
The summit comes at a time when the Taliban have declared a new interim government in Afghanistan and the situation in the country is being discussed on all global platforms.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said the five countries of the grouping — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — have supported multilateralism and taken part in global governance in the spirit of equity justice and mutual assistance. “Over the past 15 years, our five countries have enhanced strategic communication and political trust in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and equality and explored a sound path to interact with each other. Our five countries have sought synergy between our development policies and drawn on our complementarities. We have made solid progress in various areas of cooperation in the spirit of pragmatism, innovation. And we have forged ahead on our common journey of development,” Xi Jinping said.
Vladimir Putin commented on the situation in Afghanistan as he said it is still unclear how what is happening in Afghanistan will affect global and regional security.
“The withdrawal of US forces and its allies from Afghanistan has led to a new crisis, and it’s still unclear how this will affect global and regional security. It is for good reason that our countries have paid special attention to this issue. Afghanistan should not become a threat to its neighbouring countries, a source of terrorism and drug trafficking,” Putin said.
