BRICS FMs meet in Russia as India carries forward PM Modi’s vision of building distinct global image

NEW DELHI — Continuing its role as a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ (global friend), India is expected to raise the development concerns facing the Global South and challenges facing the world at the two-day BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting starting in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod from Monday.

Taking place immediately after the formation of Modi 3.0 in New Delhi, this would also be the first meeting of BRICS foreign ministers since the expansion of the grouping was formalised in January.

To be chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the meeting will see the participation of India’s External Affairs Minister, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi besides foreign ministers of other member states and countries invited from the Global South and East.

While Monday’s meeting will be the traditional stand-alone Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at which all foreign ministers of the countries that are members of BRICS are expected to be in attendance, an expanded meeting will take place on Tuesday with the participation from 15 countries invited by Russia.

The meetings are expected to discuss current geopolitical issues and improve the global governance system with an emphasis on increasing the role of developing countries.

The outcomes of the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will feed into the 16th BRICS Summit scheduled to take place in Kazan in October.

Several bilateral meetings are also planned to take place on the sidelines of the two-day event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been spotlighting India’s growing profile and emergence as a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ in a divided world.

In his first comments after staking a claim to form a government for the third consecutive time, PM Modi said on Friday that the time has come to reap the benefits of all the hard work done in the last 10 years to raise India’s profile on the global stage.

“A distinct global image has been built in the last 10 years as India has emerged as a Vishwa Bandhu. Its maximum advantage will begin now. I am fully confident that the next five years will be extremely useful for the country as far as the global environment is concerned,” he said while speaking outside Rashtrapati Bhavan after meeting President Droupadi Murmu.

A separate section titled ‘Modi ki guarantee for Vishwa Bandhu Bharat’ in the BJP’s 2024 elections manifesto mentions how the Modi government has made Bharat “a reliable, trusted and dependable voice globally” in the last 10 years.

“Today, the world believes that Bharat is the mother of democracy. Our diaspora around the world feels empowered and connected. Our civilisational values, thoughts, wisdom and traditional knowledge have found a place of pride at the world stage. We will strengthen our position and conduct our policies to further our national interests with the spirit of Vishwa Bandhu,” states the BJP ‘Sankalp Patra’.

It mentions further consolidation of India’s position as a voice of the Global South by using Prime Minister Modi’s visionary 5S approach of samman, samvad, sahyog, shanti and samriddhi.