BRICS Culture Meet in Varanasi: June 4-5

New Delhi, Jun 1 (PTI) All members of the BRICS will be represented at its Culture Working Group (CWG) meeting in Varanasi on June 4-5, and hopefully culture ministers from these countries will be attending the ministerial meet in August in Bhopal, a top Indian official said on Monday.

The second CWG meeting of BRICS, under the chairship of India, will take place against the backdrop of the ongoing West Asia conflict, and the forum is set to bring representatives of Iran and the UAE, among other member nations of the influential grouping, at one table.

The third meeting of the CWG will take place in Bhopal from August 5-6, followed by a BRICS Cultural Festival on August 6-7 and the BRICS Culture Ministers' Meeting (CMM) on August 7 and 8, also in Bhopal, Union Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal told reporters here.

Asked if India, as the current chair of the grouping, is expecting a joint communique or a chair summary after the CMM, given differences have emerged among some member states in meetings of other tracks of BRICS recently, he said, "We will do our best to arrive at a joint communique."

"We will strive to come to a common agenda and a common ground, to bring out a joint communique. But, it will depend on how we will proceed in the discussions, and how much consensus we can build among the members," the culture secretary said.

Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will lead the CMM in Bhopal.

Sources said the ministerial meeting of the culture track is expected to be hosted at the historic Minto Hall in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

All member states have confirmed participation for the CWG meet scheduled to take place in Varanasi on June 4-5, and some have even confirmed that their representatives will be travelling from their respective home country, a source told PTI.

The first Culture Working Group meeting was held online on April 29 and 30.

"In the online meeting, we set the agenda for the next two rounds. Generally, there was a consensus among the members. We have also given the members to send comments in writing, on the agenda. Some of the comments are on responsible use of AI, etc.," Aggarwal told reporters at curtain-raiser press conference on the culture track meetings of the BRICS.

The knowledge partner for the meetings is the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), he said.

Asked if the culture minister of Iran will attend the BRICS CMM in Bhopal, Aggarwal said, "Invites would have gone to all ministers, but the confirmation will come closer to the meeting."


"As far as the Varanasi meeting is concerned, almost every delegation is participating. If by any chance less people come from the home country, then representatives come from respective embassies. So, every country will be represented in the Varanasi meeting, and hopefully we will have almost all the ministers for the August meeting," he added.

India hosted a meeting of the foreign ministers of the BRICS nations on May 14 and 15 in New Delhi. The members failed to issue a joint statement at the end of the conclave in view of sharp differences over the West Asia conflict, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appearing to blame the UAE for the lack of consensus on it.

A "Chair's Statement and Outcome Document" was issued at the end of the meeting.

India recently also chaired a meeting of BRICS Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys on the Middle East and North Africa (BRICS MENA) in New Delhi, with the MEA saying that a consensus could not be reached as there were differences on account of the ongoing conflict in West Asia.

The conflict in West Asia began on February 28 when the US-Israel combine launched military strikes on Iran, and Tehran retaliated by attacking Gulf states hosting US bases.

The BRICS Culture Ministers' Meeting is a key platform for promoting mutual understanding, cultural exchange, and other collaborative initiatives in the culture sector, among its members.

In May 2025, Union minister Shekhawat had participated in the 10th CMM of BRICS in Brasilia, Brazil, where a declaration was adopted.

Having adopted the declaration of the 10th BRICS Culture Ministers Meeting, India is committed to cultural diplomacy, heritage conservation, and people-to-people exchanges among the BRICS nations through cooperation and exchange in the fields of arts, museum and galleries, cultural heritage, archives, literature, puppetry, various arts forms and dance forms, theatre, among others, the Indian culture ministry had said last year.

The BRICS, initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE, with Indonesia joining in 2025.

The BRICS has emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.

A forum of major emerging markets and developing countries of the world, it serves as a useful platform for consultation and cooperation on contemporary issues having global as well as regional significance, and issues of global political and economic governance.

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.

A further expansion of BRICS took place in 2024 with Egypt; Ethiopia; Iran;and UAE becoming full members of BRICS from January 2024. In January 2025, Indonesia joined the BRICS as a full member while Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan were inducted as partner countries of the grouping, according to a note on the evolution of BRICS, shared on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).