Brics partner mechanism on top of Kazan Summit agenda; Modi to meet Putin on October 22

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced his trip to Russia next week for the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, where the “partner mechanism” will top the agenda under the Russian presidency,

Partner mechanism refers to countries who would be partners of BRICS in a structured format and not full members.

During his visit, the PM is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the other member countries – Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.

ET had reported on Friday that the PM would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan on October 22. There is no confirmation yet of a structured meeting between the PM and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan.

The summit, themed ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security’, will provide an important platform for leaders to discuss key global issues, said the external affairs ministry.

"The summit will offer a valuable opportunity to assess the progress of initiatives launched by BRICS and to identify potential areas for future collaboration," the ministry said.

The summit will also see integration of the invited countries as full members of BRICS (six new countries joined last year but Argentina pulled out later) and further development of the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries, according to people familiar with the matter. As many as 10 new countries could be admitted as partners under the BRICS partner model, they said.

The modalities for the BRICS partner country category are under discussion amongst the member countries. India has been actively contributing to these discussions, said people in the know.

During last year’s summit in Johannesburg, the grouping had tasked foreign ministers to further develop the BRICS partner country model and a list of prospective partner countries. Many countries have shown interest in joining the grouping. Russia has invited countries from Southeast Asia, Africa, South America and Europe (Serbia) for the BRICS Plus meeting on October 24.

India supported the process of BRICS expansion. Together with the new members, BRICS would emerge as a stronger voice of the global south. India supported the process of seamless and smooth integration of new members into the various BRICS cooperation mechanisms, said the people cited earlier.

Russia took over as the BRICS chair on 1 January 2024, and has proposed more than 250 meetings or events of the grouping.

Around 150 events and meetings were concluded under India’s BRICS presidency in 2021. BRICS works on the basis of consensus but this has not impeded it from organic expansion including nearly 20 annual ministerial meetings.

The BRICS New Development Bank, whose first president was from India, is just one example of collective achievements of the grouping, according to the people cited earlier, The bank has been a resounding success in providing a development-oriented lender catering to emerging markets and developing countries, they said.




( Originally published on Oct 18, 2024 )