The fourteenth BRICS summit was hosted by China this year. This was a virtual summit and foreign ministers from all the BRICS countries participated in it through video conferencing on the 19th of May 2022. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Wang Yi chaired the meeting under the BRICS rotating Presidency. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Amb. Carlos Alberto Franco França, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Amb. Sergey Lavrov and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Ms. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, led their respective delegations.
Views on enhancing intra-BRICS cooperation were discussed by the ministers during the virtual conference. It was suggested that the BRICS cooperation be enhanced on the three pillars of political and security, economic and finance, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Taking this into account they recalled the adoption in 2021 of the revised Terms of Reference for guiding BRICS engagement.
The ministers recapitulated that the BRICS countries shall continue to work together to stop the spread, effects and after-effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. They all lauded and also supported the primary role of the WHO in challenging the pandemic and called for the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda as reported by MEA.
The Ministers also discussed the conflict situation in Ukraine and supported talks between Russia and Ukraine. The ministers raised mutual concern about the impact on energy and food security due to the conflict.
The Ministers supported the call for advancing the process of reform and greater representation of developing countries in the international organizations and multilateral fora including the UN and its Security Council so that they could play an important role in global governance. Talking of climate change and its impact on resources and life, the ministers stressed the need and significance of the fulfilment by developed countries of their commitments to provide technology and climate financing to assist developing countries in combatting climate change.
The Head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry also said that China is looking forward to starting the process of BRICS expansion. All the ministers welcomed the developments and meetings in both B2B and P2P formats and looked forward to greater cooperation in these areas.
Dr. S. Jaishankar summed up the details of the BRICS summit in a series of tweets. He tweeted about the four major points that were made:
1. International organizations must seek actual change and not just new terminology. “A rebalanced and multipolar world should lead to reformed multilateralism.”
2. “Terrorism in all forms and manifestations should be condemned.”
3. The Covid pandemic followed by the Ukraine conflict is causing enormous socio-economic hardships in the developing world. We need resilient and reliable supply chains and economic decentralisation.
4. Global recovery should advance food and energy security and prioritize health, digital and green growth.
