Excellency President Xi,
Excellency President Ramaphosa,
Excellency President Bolsonaro,
Excellency President Putin,

First of all, on the occasion of International Day of Yoga, I congratulate all of you for the spectacular events that took place in all the BRICS countries. I would also like to express my gratitude for the support we have received from your teams.

Excellencies,

Today for the third year in a row, we are meeting virtually amid the challenges of the Covid pandemic.

Even though the scale of the epidemic has reduced globally than before, however many of its ill effects are still visible in the global economy.

We, the BRICS member countries, have had a very similar view of the governance of the global economy.

And so our mutual cooperation can make a useful contribution to post-Covid global recovery.

Over the years, we have made a number of institutional reforms in BRICS, which have increased the effectiveness of this organization.

It is also a matter of happiness that the membership of our New Development Bank has also increased.

There are many areas where the lives of our citizens are getting directly benefitted from our mutual cooperation.

For example, establishment of vaccine R&D center, coordination among custom departments, establishment of shared satellite constellation, mutual recognition of pharma products, etc.

Such practical steps make BRICS a unique international organization whose focus is not just limited to dialogue.

BRICS Youth Summits, BRICS Sports, and increase in exchanges amongst our civil society organizations and think-tanks have strengthened our people-to-people contact.

I am confident that today’s discussion will bring out many suggestions to further strengthen our BRICS ties.

Thank you.