BRICS Summit: India engages ASEAN, Africa, GCC and BIMSTEC leaders on Global South agenda

The countries which were invited for the BRICS outreach session were selected in a way to ensure that there is representation of the most important developing regions and so that the group's work with its partners in the Global South can be shared, ANI reported, quoting Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (Economic Relations) Sudhakar Dalela.Dalela said that the main focus of the discussions carried out in these two days was to ensure that BRICS nations deliver the outcomes as well as the initiatives that are relevant to the Global South countries.“

I think one common thread in the discussion both yesterday and today was as to how BRICS can come up with outcomes and deliverables which are relevant for the Global South in general,” the agency quoted Dalela as saying.Dalela also said that given the membership of the group, it was decided to engage with leaders from groups of developing countries from different regions.“ In that context, it is in that spirit, in terms of the BRICS grouping, nature of BRICS grouping and its membership, it was felt that perhaps it would be a good idea to reach out to other continents and invite the country Chairs of the developing country groupings such as ASEAN, African Union, CELAC in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and also Gulf Cooperation Council and BIMSTEC,” he said.He said that representatives from these groups were invited to give them an understanding about what BRICS stands for and the initiatives that the grouping is undertaking.“

See and share with them what BRICS is all about, what we are doing within the BRICS grouping,” he said.“ We chose these few country Chairs of these organisations. BIMSTEC Chair was also invited, as I had mentioned earlier,” he added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said earlier that the spirit of friendship, partnership, and cooperation have been advanced by India through the BRICS platform. He made the observation while chairing a session on 'Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth'.“

I can say from personal experience that the trust of Global South nations in BRICS has grown, because their voices are heard, their experiences are respected, and solutions are crafted not just for them, but with them,” PM Modi said, as per ANI.The 18th BRICS Summit, hosted by India under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, concluded with the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration.

With ANI inputs