Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 13th BRICS Summit in a virtual format. Brics is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 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.
The theme for the Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’. 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. The PM also said that for the first time, Brics has taken collective position on strengthening and reforming multilateral systems. “It’s a matter of great pleasure for me and India to chair this summit on the occasion of 15th anniversary of Brics,” PM Modi said. Without mentioning the Taliban or putting the onus on them for the situation in Afghanistan, leaders of the BRICS Thursday expressed concern over “the latest developments” there and called for “refraining from violence and settling the situation by peaceful means”.
The New Delhi declaration, that followed the BRICS summit, held via virtual mode with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the host, said leaders stressed the need for an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue”. The declaration condemned the terror attack at the Kabul international airport, for which the Islamic State (Khorasan) had claimed responsibility. Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the BRICS summit and spoke about the Afghanistan crisis.
