BRICS leaders call for deeper cooperation and a more ambitious agenda

As the curtain came down on the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Sunday, leaders associated with its foundation articulated the vision and trajectory the forum should take to collectively prepare for future challenges in the Global South.

Artificial Intelligence, disaster resilience, concerns over the effects of climate change, food and energy security, sustainable development and harnessing new technology across different sectors for the benefit of its people, who represent half the world’s population, were the themes.

Taking part in the concluding session of the summit here, President Cyril Ramaphosa underscored that the 20th anniversary was a moment to reaffirm BRICS commitment to deepen cooperation and drive a more ambitious agenda in diverse fields as the world was changing rapidly, containing risks and opportunities.

Commending India for prioritising resilience, which linked to the Disaster Risk Reduction outcomes of South Africa’s G20 Presidency, he said BRICS should build disaster risk reduction into macroeconomic policy, climate financing and sustainable infrastructure. Vulnerable countries, he said, must have equitable access to the technologies, finance and capacity to withstand future shocks.

“The global energy transition must prioritise re-skilling, protecting livelihoods and anchoring new industries that generate quality jobs. It is important that markets for critical minerals and transition technologies are built on transparency and that value chains are diversified and responsible. To ensure inclusive growth in Africa and other regions of the world, beneficiation of minerals must take place at source,” President Ramaphosa said.

With AI becoming increasingly more powerful and acquiring capabilities to reshape almost every area of economic and social life, he suggested it was time for policy planners to understand the warnings about the system’s ability to disrupt various facets of life and people.

AI and associated technologies had the potential to usher in a new era of productivity and human progress. If used effectively and responsibly, it could support efforts to reduce inequality, poverty and underdevelopment.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that human governance advances as rapidly as artificial intelligence itself … We must listen carefully to what those who are developing the most powerful AI systems are themselves telling us … that AI companies should be subject to formal external checks, audits and government authority,” Ramaphosa said.

“South Africa accordingly proposes that BRICS should establish an international mechanism for the independent scientific evaluation of AI. This should be backed by meaningful human-control principles, mandatory reporting of serious incidents, progressively stronger safeguards as capability increases and simultaneous investment in sovereign AI capacity for developing economy countries.”

As BRICS entered its third decade, he said, it should be more ambitious. Engagement with partner countries should whip up deeper cooperation, especially in public health, education, science and technology, finance and trade.

Modi on India’s approach during chairship

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that during the presidency, India focused on the four pillars of resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. With cooperation from member countries it could translate the shared vision into win-win cooperation.

Building on the pillars, India sought to promote inclusive global growth as it believed the benefits of solutions developed in Brics should be made adaptable and accessible to meet the needs of the Global South.

Modi said that from his experience, the Global South countries’ confidence in BRICS had grown because in the forum, their voices were heard, their were experiences respected and solutions were developed not for them but together with them.

“We may be rooted in different realities but together, we rise through cooperation and blossom for humanity. May our diversity remain our identity, our cooperation becomes our inspiration and our progress serve the cause of all humanity,” Modi said.

India’s Secretary of Economic Relations and Brics Sherpa Sudhakar Dalela said at a media briefing that during its chairship, India organised 350 meetings across various sectors and arrived at 50 outcomes which would be rolling over as the forum entered its third decade.

China takes over 2027 chairship

Suggesting that Brics countries seize the historical initiative at a time when unprecedented changes were speeding across the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the collective rise of the Global South had become a key driver of multipolarity in the world.

“At the same time, the international landscape is volatile and fraught with risks and challenges. To bring stability to the world and make it a better place, BRICS countries must seize the historical initiative, rally the Global South, be an active, stabilising and positive force in international affairs and advance the well-being of all humanity.

“A world without rules is like a crossroads without traffic lights, where chaos and disorder are all but guaranteed. Fairness and justice are a universal aspiration and international rules must be written by all countries, Xi’s speech put out by Xinhua News Agency said.

As global challenges kept surfacing, he said, BRICS should adopt a holistic approach to address the symptoms and root causes. Global South countries should jointly advance security governance and tackle traditional and non-traditional security threats.

In order to work on that path, he suggested that the foundation of greater BRICS cooperation must be cemented, close ties with fellow emerging markets and Global South countries leveraged, open cooperation for mutual benefit upheld, stable and smooth industrial and supply chains safeguarded and a large integrated market fostered.

Xi suggested five initiatives for building incubators for innovation, upgrading traditional industries, developing emerging industries and deploying future industries: China setting up Brics AI open-source community; initiatives for trade and investment facilitation; digital industry cooperation; intelligent manufacturing cooperation; and science and technology talent development.

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Prasad Kunduri