BRICS countries recognize group’s importance for multipolarity: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar attends the IBSA Foreign Minister’s meeting on UNGA79 sidelines, in New York on Thursday (September 26, 2024).
| Photo Credit: ANI

: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with his BRICS counterparts to affirm its role in a multipolar world. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

“Underlined its significance for multi-polarity and global diversity,” Mr. Jaishankar said on social media site X. The group, originally comprised on Brazil Russia India China South Africa, expanded at the start of this year to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE. Thursday’s meeting was convened by Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.

The group focused on reforming multilateralism and strengthening development, the minister said. They also discussed the Sustainable Development Goals, debt, fair trade and poverty alleviation, according to Mr. Jaishankar.

Asked earlier this week at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) about what India was getting out of being a member of the Quad and also BRICS and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), Mr. Jaishankar said each of these groupings represented a different aspect of India’s goals.

“I think each one is a different facet … of our interests and our activities,” he said. The BRICS group was made in the context of non-Western countries feeling they were not getting a fair hearing in the overall scheme of things, Mr. Jaishankar said.