BRICS leaders including China, Russia and India concluded a second and final day of talks in New Delhi on Sunday, discussing “inclusive global growth”, after reaching a rare agreement calling for calm in the Middle East.
Members of the 11-nation group called for exercising maximum restraint in the Middle East on Saturday, overcoming earlier divisions to issue a joint statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for “cooperation” within the bloc, which he has said represents “50 percent of the world’s population, 40 percent of global GDP and more than 25 percent of global trade”.
“The power of BRICS lies in our diversity and cooperation,” Modi told leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the final day of talks.
Putin left New Delhi on Sunday after the two-day summit and talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi, the Russian embassy said. Before he left, Putin said in a speech that the bloc was working to create a “new, more just, multipolar world order”.
The BRICS forum was established in 2009 to bring together the major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa quickly joining, outside the framework of blocs dominated by the United States and Western powers, such as the G7.
The bloc has since expanded to include countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, which hold vastly different positions on the war in the Middle East. (AFP)
