Officials from five nations met in Brasilia on March 24-25 for the 10th BRICS Policy Planning Dialogue, where they discussed a wide range of global geopolitical issues as well as regional developments.
The dialogue was attended by policy planners from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, alongside senior representatives from the expanded BRICS membership.
The Indian delegation was led by Raghuram S., Joint Secretary (Policy Planning & Research), MEA.
“The Dialogue provided an opportunity to deliberate on the institutional development of BRICS, reflecting the bloc’s recent expansion,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
“Key development priorities, including global health cooperation, the evolving international trade and financial scenario, climate action, artificial intelligence governance, and reforms of multilateral peace and security frameworks were also discussed,” the statement said.
As the current President of BRICS, Brazil hosted the current edition of the BRICS Policy Planning Dialogue, as a part of its preparations for the forthcoming BRICS Summit later this year.
BRICS
BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing around 41% of the global population, around 24% of the global GDP and around 16% of global trade.
The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs” on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the four economies would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.
As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the Leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006.
The grouping was formalized during the 1st meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of UNGA in New York in 2006.
The 1st BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.
It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010.
Accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya in 2011.
(With inputs from IBNS)
