Modi pitches BRICS as platform for resilient, inclusive and sustainable global growth
New Delhi, Sep 13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for deeper cooperation among BRICS countries to build resilience against global crises, harness innovation, strengthen partnerships and promote sustainable development, saying the grouping’s growing diversity and influence reflected rising international confidence in it.
Addressing the 18th BRICS Summit session on ‘Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth’ in New Delhi on September 13, Modi welcomed the expanded BRICS membership and said the gathering represented a convergence of continents, cultures and diverse development experiences.
He said India’s BRICS presidency had centred its efforts on four pillars – resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability – and expressed satisfaction that the grouping had been able to convert its shared vision into practical, mutually beneficial initiatives with the support of member countries.
Highlighting the worsening global security environment, Modi said the rising number of conflicts and tensions was having an increasingly adverse and far-reaching impact on ordinary people. He also pointed to pandemics, climate-related disasters and disruptions in global supply chains as evidence that crises in an interconnected world could no longer be confined to individual regions.
Against this backdrop, he said BRICS had given particular attention to strengthening resilience by improving preparedness, identifying emerging challenges early and ensuring timely responses.
Among the initiatives, Modi highlighted the agreement on a BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for preventing and responding to infectious diseases, guidelines for integrating early-warning data for disaster management and a BRICS Logistics Supply Chain Cooperation Framework aimed at making supply chains more dependable and resilient.
On innovation, Modi said the BRICS Incubator Network would foster greater links among startups and business incubators across member countries. India has also proposed a BRICS Startup Innovation Fund to support innovative and scalable solutions.
He said the BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture would seek to connect technologies such as artificial intelligence, geospatial applications and digital public infrastructure with the practical requirements of farmers.
At the same time, Modi cautioned that the weaponisation of technology and critical minerals could impede collective development and stressed the importance of ensuring that technological progress remained inclusive.
On cooperation, the Prime Minister said India had sought to use BRICS not merely as a platform for inter-governmental engagement but as a mechanism involving entrepreneurs, farmers, researchers, women, young people and ordinary citizens.
He pointed to BRICS CONNECT, which promotes skills, employability, women’s participation in the workforce, social security and capacity building, as well as the BRICS MSME Cooperation Portal, designed to help small enterprises gain access to knowledge, finance and new markets.
The BRICS Urban Mobility Hub, he said, would facilitate the exchange of best practices among cities of member countries.
Turning to sustainability, Modi invoked India’s civilisational view of nature as a mother and said development and environmental protection should not be treated as competing objectives.
He said BRICS had accordingly sought to strike a balance between human development and environmental sustainability, describing this as a responsibility towards future generations.
As part of these efforts, a BRICS Digital Centre of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage has been established to improve the reliability, efficiency and accessibility of clean-energy systems. Centres of Excellence focused on agro-ecology and regenerative agriculture, he said, would seek to combine traditional knowledge with modern scientific approaches.
Modi also highlighted principles for community-based climate adaptation, saying these would help place indigenous knowledge at the centre of climate action.
The Prime Minister said the broader objective of these four pillars was to promote inclusive global growth, with the benefits of solutions developed within BRICS extending beyond the grouping and being adapted to the needs of countries across the Global South.
Drawing on his experience, Modi said confidence in BRICS among developing countries had increased because the grouping provided space for their voices to be heard, their experiences to be respected and solutions to be developed jointly rather than imposed on them.
He said the strength of BRICS lay in its diversity and ability to cooperate despite different national circumstances.
“The strength of BRICS lies in our diversity and cooperation,” Modi said, emphasising that the grouping could transform its varied development experiences into collective progress serving the wider interests of humanity.
He called for BRICS’s diversity to remain its defining identity, cooperation to serve as its inspiration and its collective progress to contribute to the cause of humanity.
