By Enyichukwu Enemanna
India’s Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (Economic Relations) Sudhakar Dalela on Sunday said countries and regional bodies have been invited for the BRICS outreach session, invitations he said were extended in a way to ensure that there is representation of the most important developing regions, as well as ensuring that the bloc’s work with its partners in the Global South can be shared.
Dalela said the main focus of the discussions at the two-day summit 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,” Dalela was quoted 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, (Association of South East Asian Nations), African Union, CELAC in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and also Gulf Cooperation Council and BIMSTEC,” he said.
He added 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.
Indian 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’ during the summit which ended on Sunday.
“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.
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.
