India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday participated in a virtual meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers, chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi. The meeting was also attended by South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In his remarks, Jaishankar said that the international organisations must see real change, not just in terminology. A rebalanced and multipolar world should lead to reformed multilateralism, he said. The Indian minister also said that terrorism in all forms and manifestations should be condemned.
"We must crackdown on all support, including financing," he added. "The Covid pandemic followed by the Ukraine conflict is causing enormous socio-economic hardships in the developing world. We need resilient and reliable supply chains, economic decentralisation," he said. Global recovery should advance food and energy security and prioritize health, digital and green growth while the BRICS must display zero tolerance for terrorism, especially cross border terrorism, Jaishankar said. Noting that the globalised and digitised world will give due regard to trust and transparency, Jaishankar also said that the 'Sustainable Development Goals' must be approached in a comprehensive manner. According to the statement released by the External Affairs Ministry, the Ministers exchanged views on furthering intra-BRICS cooperation on the three pillars of political and security, economic and finance, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. In this regard, they recalled the adoption in 2021 of the revised Terms of Reference for guiding BRICS engagement.
They also reiterated that the BRICS countries shall continue work together to contain the spread and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and supported the leading role of the WHO in combating the pandemic, the importance of the on-going discussions in the WTO including on TRIPS waiver proposal, and called for the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The Ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine and supported talks between Russia and Ukraine, and expressed concern at the energy and food security implications of the conflict. The Ministers participated in the dialogue between BRICS and developing countries on global governance and discussed greater engagement with the BRICS process.