Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

PM’s opening remarks at virtual BRICS Summit – 2020

  • Excellencies, The theme of this year’s summit – ‘BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth’ is not only relevant, but also far-sighted.
  • Significant geo-strategic changes are taking place all over the world, which will continue to impact the stability, security and growth, and BRICS will play a important role in all these three areas.
  • Excellencies, This year, on the 75th anniversary of the Second World War, we pay tribute to the all the valiant soldiers whom we lost.
  • More than 2.5 million brave Indian soldiers were active in this war on many fronts like Europe, Africa, and South East Asia.
  • This year we are commemorating 75 years of the United Nations. India has been a strong supporter of multilateralism as UN’s founding member.
  • The Indian culture treats the whole world as one family, so it was natural for us to support an institution like UN.
  • Our commitment to the values of the UN has remained undeterred – India has lost the most soldiers in UN peacekeeping operations.But today the multilateral system is facing a crisis.
  • Both credibility and effectiveness of global governance institutions are being questioned. The main reason for this is that these did not change with time.
  • These are still rooted in the thinking and reality of a world which was seen 75 years ago. India believes that reforms are a must in the UN Security Council.
  • We expect support from our BRICS partners in this matter. Apart from the UN, many other international institutions are also not functioning according to current realities.
  • Institutions like WTO, IMF, WHO must also reform. Excellencies, Terrorism is the biggest menace the world is facing today.
  • We must ensure that the countries that support and help terrorists are also held to account, and this problem must be dealt in a united manner.
  • We are happy that the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy has been finalized under the presidency of Russia.
  • This is a notable achievement. And India will pursue this task further during its presidency. Excellencies, BRICS economies will play a prime role in the post-COVID global recovery.
  • We have more than 42 % of the world’s population, and our countries are among the driving engines of the global economy.
  • There is ample scope for scaling up mutual trade between BRICS countries. Our mutual institutions and systems – such as BRICS Inter-Bank Cooperation Mechanism, New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement and Customs Cooperation – can also make our contribution effective in global recovery.
  • In India, we have started a comprehensive reform process under the ‘Self-reliant India’ campaign.
  • The campaign is rooted in the theme that a self-reliant and resilient India can be a Force Multiplier for the post-COVID economy. And can contribute strongly to global value chains.
  • We proved this during COVID, when we were able to deliver essential medicines to more than 150 countries due to the capability of the Indian pharma industry.
  • As I have said earlier, our vaccine production and logistics capacities are going to benefit all of mankind.
  • India and South Africa have proposed an exemption from the Intellectual Property agreements relating to the COVID-19 vaccine, treatment and investigation.
  • We hope that other BRICS countries will support too. During its BRICS presidency, India will work toward boosting BRICS collaboration in digital health and traditional medicine.
  • In this difficult year, many initiatives were taken to enhance people-to-people contact under the Russian presidency. Such as the BRICS Film Festival, and meetings of young scientists and young diplomats. I warmly congratulate President Putin for this.

 

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