BRICS summit build-up: Focus on development cooperation

brics (1)The build-up towards the 8th BRICS summit India will be hosting in Goa in October has acquired a momentum, with a series of meetings being planned in the next ten weeks. The intra-BRICS cooperation will be in focus at a meeting of BRICS Development Partnership Administrators in New Delhi on August 6-7.

The intra-BRICS development cooperation has acquired an added salience against the backdrop of a renewed emphasis on expanding South-South cooperation and the setting of New Development Bank.

“The meeting will provide a forum for the BRICS DPAs to exchange ideas on key issues of global, national and sectoral significance in the field of development cooperation and share knowledge on best practices and the challenges to be approached and mitigated through policy actions in this area,” the external affairs ministry said ahead of the meeting.

The DPAs will also interact with the Forum for Indian Development Cooperation (FIDC), a tripartite initiative of the Development Partnership Administration of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, academia and civil society. The focus will be on expanding development cooperation within the overarching framework of “Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions,” the master theme of the 8th BRICS summit which will be held under India’s chairmanship of the BRICS grouping of emerging powers.

brics-logo-2016In the run-up to the BRICS summit in Goa, a host of BRICS-related meetings will be held in different parts of India. Goa alone is hosting 12 events from August to October. These include the BRICS secretary-level meeting on August 28, followed by a ministerial meeting of BRICS Environment Ministers on August 29, BRICS Academic Forum on September 19 and 22; meeting of BRICS Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors in Goa and Working Group meeting of BRICS Development Banks, Workshop on Export Credit on October 1, BRICS Business Council in Goa as well as Annual Meeting of BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism on the following day on October 15.

The same day will also see the BRICS Financial Forum, a two day meeting of Heads of BRICS Development Bank with NDB on October 15-16, and finally BRICS Business Council Interaction with BRICS leaders and a U-17 football tournament.

Around 90 BRICS-related meetings will be held ahead of the BRICS summit on October 15-16, which will be attended by the leaders of India, Brazil, South Africa and Russia.