16th BRICS Summit and first BRICS Outreach Dialogue in Kazan, Russia

Russia hosted the 16th BRICS summit meeting and the first BRICS Outreach/BRICS plus summit meeting at Kazan from 22 to 24 October 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the meeting, which was attended by the bloc's leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Brazil will host the next 17th  BRICS summit meeting in 2025.

About BRICS and BRICS Plus 

The acronym BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 when  he said that Brazil, Russia ,India and China (BRIC) will drive the global growth in the coming decade.

As per his prediction, the share of these four countries in the global output increased from 8 per cent in 2000 to 11 per cent in 2011.

The first foreign minister meeting of the BRIC was held in New York in 2006 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The first summit meeting of the four countries' leaders was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.

South Africa joined the group in 2011 during the third summit meeting held in Sanya, China. The name of the group was changed to BRICS (Brazil,Russia,India, China and South Africa).

At the 15th BRICS summit held in Johannesburg ,South Africa from 22-24 August 2024, six countries were invited to become a member of the BRICS.

 Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia joined the group on 1 January 2024. However, Argentina declined to join the BRICS after Javier Milei's government came into power in the country..

BRIC plus refers to the newly added five members of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates and the original BRICS member.. The first BRICs  summit meeting with the extended membership was held in Kazan.

Who attended the BRICS Summit meeting?

The summit meeting hosted by the Russian President Vladimir Putin was attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi, United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed,. Saudi Arabia was represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Brazil was represented by its foreign minister, Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira.

The meeting was also attended by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutteras and the President of the New Development, Dilma Rousseff.

The New Development Bank has been set up by the BRICS countries as a multilateral development bank.

Theme of the BRICS Summit meeting 

The theme of the 16th BRICS summit meeting was Strengthening Multilateralism for Fair Global Development and Security,”

BRICS Outreach/BRICS Plus Dialogue 

The BRICS Outreach/BRICS Plus dialogue  was held on 24 October 2024 at Kazan, Russia. The BRICS Outreach refers to the countries which are not members of the BRICS but are interested in joining it in the future. 

The theme of the BRICS Outreach/BRIC Plus dialogue was "BRICS and Global South: Building a Better World Together.

36 countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America  attended the BRICS Outreach meeting. 22 countries were represented by their head of state and others by their foreign ministers.

The Indian side was led by the External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar.

The BRICS Outreach meeting was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

BRICS Partner Country 

At the Kazan summit ,13 countries were made the partner countries of the BRICS,however they are not full members of the BRICS. These countries are Algeria, Uganda,Nigeria from Africa. Belarus and Turkiye from Europe, Latin American countries of Bolivia, Cuba and the Asian countries of Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Kazan Declaration 

At the end of the BRICS Summit meeting a joint declaration was issued called the Kazan Declaration Strengthening Multilateralism For Just Global Development And Security''.

The main points of the joint declaration are:

The BRICS countries will be encouraged to use local currencies to settle financial transactions between the member countries.

Discussing to be held to set up an independent cross-border settlement and depositary infrastructure, BRICS Clear.

They welcomed the Russian intiative to establish BRICS Gairn Exchange. It is a grain trading platform which will be expanded to include other agricultural commodities.

Prime Minister Modi and the Chinese President meet after 5 years \

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President  Xi Jinping met at Kazan during the BRICS summit meeting. It was after five years that the Indian prime minister was holding a bilateral meeting with the Chinese president.

The last time the two leaders met was at the BRICS Summit in Brasilia in November 2019. 

It was also the first meeting between the two leaders after the clash between the two armies at Galwan in 2020.

Both the leaders agreed that the Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question will meet at an early date  to resolve the border issues.

The two leaders welcomed the agreement between their countries on patrolling along the Line of actual control (LAC).