Bharat took part in the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, marking the first foreign policy assignment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third consecutive term. Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations) at Bharat’s Ministry of External Affairs, led the Bharatiya delegation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov opened the meeting with a minute of silence for the deceased former Iran President Ebrahim Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, offering condolences to the people of Iran and the families of the victims.
The meeting saw the participation of notable leaders including South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shokri, among others.
📸 Heads of delegations take part in the traditional #FamilyPhoto ceremony ahead of the #BRICS Ministerial
📍 Nizhny Novgorod, June 10#BRICS2024 pic.twitter.com/grvC16lKyp
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) June 10, 2024
Delegation heads posed for a family photo, which the Russian Foreign Ministry shared on social media, highlighting the traditional ceremony.
This meeting was significant as it was the first since the BRICS expansion in 2023. The BRICS group now includes ten full members: Brazil, Russia, Bharat, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia. Russia assumed the BRICS chairmanship on January 1, 2024.
In his opening remarks, Sergey Lavrov welcomed attendees to Nizhny Novgorod, emphasizing its historical significance. He noted that this meeting, being held in the expanded format, marks an important milestone for BRICS and reflects the shift towards a multipolar world order.
Lavrov highlighted the emergence of new global decision-making centers from the Global South and East, advocating for a just world order based on sovereign equality and civilizational diversity.
Lavrov criticized the US and its allies for attempting to maintain dominance and hinder the formation of multipolarity. He accused them of using economic tools as weapons, including sanctions and financial blackmail, to influence the development choices of sovereign states. He cited examples like Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and others to illustrate his point.
As per the Lavrov, Russia supports a more equitable world order that respects the sovereign equality of states and balances forces and interests. He claimed that recent international events have exposed those who previously claimed the right to define “universal values” under a “rules-based order,” accusing them of imposing norms that serve their interests while excluding equal dialogue.
Lavrov praised BRICS as an association that practices equal cooperation in deeds and expressed confidence that BRICS’s role in addressing global challenges will continue to grow. He anticipated productive discussions in a separate session with several like-minded BRICS countries, aiming to advance a forward-looking, constructive international agenda.
Overall, the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting highlighted the association’s commitment to fostering a multipolar world and strengthening collective approaches to international development.
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