13th BRICS Summit 2021

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will chair the 13th BRICS Summit on 9 September 2021 in virtual format.
• The theme for the Summit is ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’.

• India had outlined four priority areas for its Chairship. These are
  • Reform of the Multilateral System,
  • Counter Terrorism,
  • Using Digital and Technological Tools for achieving SDGs and
  • Enhancing People to People exchanges.
• In addition to these areas, the leaders will also exchange views on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues.
• This is the second time Prime Minister Modi will be chairing the BRICS Summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa Summit in 2016.
• The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the fifteenth anniversary of BRICS, as reflected in the theme for the Summit.
• The priority under this pillar are:
  • BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2020-25 – Implementation of this strategy will be discussed.
  • BRICS Agriculture Research Platform – The platform’s operations will be discussed.
  • Cooperation on Disaster Resilience
  • Innovation Cooperation
  • Digital Health and Traditional Medicine
• Cultural and People to People – The cultural and personal exchanges always enhance intra-group bonding and the BRICS 13th Summit is set to discuss the same.

Salient Features of 13th BRICS Summit

• The 13th BRICS summit held virtually called for an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue” for stability in Afghanistan.
• The virtual summit, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was dominated by the developments in Afghanistan, and adopted the BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan.
• With the agreement on Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation between our space agencies, a new chapter of cooperation has begun.
• The discussion on Afghanistan at the event attended by the leaders of India, Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa was held against the backdrop of the Taliban announcing an interim government in Kabul.
• The BRICS leaders called for “settling the situation by peaceful means”, and condemned the terrorist attacks at the Hamid Karzai International Airport which killed at least 100 persons, including several U.S. military personnel.
• “We stress the need to contribute to fostering an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order in the country. We underscore the priority of fighting terrorism, including preventing attempts by terrorist organisations to use Afghan territory as terrorist sanctuary and to carry out attacks against other countries,” declared a joint statement issued at the end of the summit.
• The document, titled the New Delhi Declaration, also called for addressing the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, and urged the need to uphold rights of women, children and minorities.
• The meeting gave an opportunity to the BRICS countries to discuss the situation in Afghanistan especially as two of the five members — Russia and China — continue to have a diplomatic presence in Kabul where an interim Taliban government is expected to take formal charge in few days.
• BRICS countries are evidently divided on engagement with the Taliban with Russia and China adopting a proactive policy on the issue. A Russian media report said the Taliban has invited Turkey, Qatar, China and Iran for the swearing-in ceremony.