Kremlin Praises India’s BRICS Chairship Ahead of New Delhi Summit
MOSCOW — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday praised India’s BRICS chairship and expressed confidence that the summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi later this week will be successful.
Speaking during a virtual briefing hosted by Sputnik India, Peskov described BRICS as a grouping of countries united by a shared vision of global cooperation and said Russia has been working to support its continued development.
“It will be, I would call it, a crown of Indian chair in this club. We highly appreciate the results of Indian chair during this period, and we have no doubt that the summit will be successful. Russia was and is taking a very active part in all the working formats of BRICS,” Peskov said.
He noted that the grouping evolved from the Russia-India-China format into BRIC with Brazil, then BRICS with South Africa, before expanding further.
“I would like to remind you. So we don’t have any charter, or we don’t have any regulations. We don’t have any office, but it’s a club of countries who are united by the same vision of the way things should be done in the world and should be done in all the fields of cooperation,” Peskov said.
“As Russia, we are doing our best to contribute to further development of BRICS cooperation in the three main pillars of our interaction – so those are policy and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts. Of course, we have lots of our own initiatives that we are promoting in the club,” he added.
Peskov also expressed support for bringing additional countries into different BRICS cooperation formats, saying the partner-state category established in 2024 had been developing successfully.
“So, this category, this status was granted to Belarus, Bolivia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan and so representatives of those countries are now, well, gradually being involved in different working formats, and we consider it very positive,” he said.
Peskov rejected the view that BRICS is intended to act against Western countries, saying the grouping is designed to serve its members rather than oppose third parties.
“We join India in not agreeing with those who say that BRICS is against some Western countries. BRICS is for BRICS members, and BRICS is for those countries who share BRICS ideology, and BRICS is not against any third party. This is the unique part of BRICS. And those who keep saying that BRICS is an antipode of the countries, they are doing a great mistake,” he said.
India is scheduled to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 12-13, bringing together leaders from member countries, partner states and outreach invitees.
India’s BRICS chairship is being held under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” The Ministry of External Affairs said leaders are expected to discuss stronger cooperation among BRICS members as well as global and regional issues of mutual interest.
India has held more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements during its chairship, focusing on political and security cooperation, economic and financial issues, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. (Source: IANS)
