BRICS Summit in Kazan: New Agenda Shaping, Says Russia

New Delhi, Oct 28 (PTI) Russia on Monday said the BRICS Summit in Kazan signalled that a "new constructive agenda" is shaping, and Moscow is committed to strengthen the grouping further with the focus on practical cooperation and international coordination.

Briefing the media here on the outcomes of last week's BRICS Summit, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said it was the first summit in the expanded format with leaders from 35 states and six international organizations, including the UN Secretary General as well as Asian, African and Latin American countries, who joined the BRICS Plus/Outreach formats.

Throughout the year, Russia hosted around 200 events -- foreign and other sectoral ministerial meetings, the parliamentary forum, the NSAs dialogue, working groups, conferences and seminars, business fora, cultural and film festivals as also sport games, fashion forum and fire drills, he said.

The summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), which now has expanded with five additional members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, was held in the Russian city of Kazan, about 900 km east of Moscow, from October 22 to 24.

The summit was held under the motto 'Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security'.

Later, the Russian Embassy issued a statement after the media briefing by Alipov.

"We succeeded quite well despite all doubts regarding differences within the expanded membership. Because our biggest value is the sincere dedication to find amicable solutions and a common ground when it comes to difficult issues," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

BRICS has transformed into an "indispensable framework" for emerging centres of power, and it keeps attracting more and more counties as a response to the global turbulence and uncertainty, he added.

"Within BRICS, we respect sovereign equality, diversity, mutual interests and mutual benefit. It offers a diversified, inclusive and consensus-based cooperation with more than 80 sectoral tracks structured into the three baskets: policy and security, economy and finance and humanitarian and cultural ties. It is free from domination, rejects unilateral sanctions, double standards or interference in domestic affairs," the Russian envoy said.

BRICS is designed for member-states to gain from a combined potential and to channel common efforts towards a more democratising global governance and sustainable development through uninterrupted cooperation based on legitimate national interests and the central role of the UN. For these purposes the vital priority is to promote just and equal multipolarity, he said.

"One of the major outcomes of the Summit is that we have created the new category of partner-countries, which will be individually invited to join the forum in this capacity. They will be announced after they accept invitations. It was very important to satisfy the growing interest to BRICS.

"This step will definitely multiply the value of our diversified partnership and add to the forum's global influence, which is now making a decisive contribution to the global food and energy security," the statement said.

To ensure seamless cooperation, it was decided to work out an investment platform through strengthening the New Development Bank (approved around 100 infrastructure projects worth USD 35 billion) as the key institution for sustainable development of its shareholders; and consider the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative to facilitate interaction between central banks and the use of local currencies to strengthen financial sovereignty and independence, among others.

"As like-minded countries, we will keep closely coordinating on various international issues on the UN, G20 and WTO agenda to create better conditions for the Global South to get an equal access to technological, financial and natural resources and to remove development gaps and achieve SDGs," the statement said.

"Consecutive presidencies of BRICS members India, Brazil and South Africa in G20 is a crucial precondition to this end, given that BRICS is focused to find just solutions and support the needs and aspirations of the developing countries," it added.