Kremlin spokesperson hails India’s BRICS chairship, says Russia doing best to contribute further cooperation

Moscow, Sep 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday said that Russia appreciates the results of India's BRICS chairship and expressed confidence that the summit set to be held in New Delhi later this week will be "successful."

Addressing a virtual briefing from Moscow hosted by Sputnik India, Peskov described BRICS as a club of nations which are united by the same vision of the way things should be done in the world and areas of cooperation. He said that Russia has been making efforts for contributing to the further development of BRICS cooperation.

"It (BRICS Summit) will be, I would call it, a crown of Indian chair in this club. We highly appreciate the results of Indian chair during this period, and we have no doubt that the summit will be successful. Russia was and is taking a very active part in all the working formats of BRICS. You know that we were actually at the very beginning of this road. So, it started 20 years ago as this RIC, Russia India China, then it was BRIC plus Brasilia, then it was BRICS plus South Africa and now it's a huge club. It's not an organisation," said Peskov.

"I would like to remind you. So we don't have any charter, or we don't have any regulations. We don't have any office, but it's a club of countries who are united by the same vision of the way things should be done in the world and should be done in all the fields of cooperation. So, as Russia, we are doing our best to contribute to further development of BRICS cooperation in the three main pillars of our interaction - so those are policy and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian contacts. Of course, we have lots of our own initiatives that we are promoting in the club," he added.

Peskov expressed Russia's support for the idea of inviting new countries to join different formats of cooperation within BRICS. He said that the new category of partner states for BRICS established in 2024 has been developing very well.

"So, this category, this status was granted to Belarus, Bolivia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan and so representatives of those countries are now, well, gradually being involved in different working formats, and we consider it very positive."

Dmitry Peskov said that Russia disagrees with those who claim that BRICS is against Western countries. He said that BRICS serves its members and not against any third party.

"We join India in not agreeing with those who say that BRICS is against some Western countries. BRICS is for BRICS members, and BRICS is for those countries who share BRICS ideology, and BRICS is not against any third party. This is the unique part of BRICS. And those who keep saying that BRICS is an antipode of the countries, they are doing a great mistake."

India is set to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, bringing together leaders of BRICS members, partner countries and outreach invitees. India’s BRICS chairship is guided by the theme: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, reflecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a people-centric approach rooted in the spirit of 'Humanity First'.

In addition to these areas, the leaders will discuss strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation on common priorities and share perspectives on global and regional matters of mutual importance, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) mentioned. Under its chairship, India has held over 350 meetings and high-level engagements to further strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership across three fundamental pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Source: IANS