New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will chair the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting set to be hosted by India on May 14-15, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Tuesday.
Addressing a weekly media briefing on Tuesday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that BRICS Foreign Ministers and heads of delegations from member and partner countries will participate in the meeting and also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“India will host the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting on 14th and 15th May 2026. The meeting will be chaired by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. BRICS Foreign Ministers and heads of delegations from member and partner countries will participate in the meeting. They will also call on honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. During the meeting, the Foreign Ministers of BRICS member countries will exchange views on global and regional issues of mutual interest,” said Jaiswal.
“On the second day, BRICS member and partner countries will participate in a session, themed BRICS at 20 Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. This will be followed by a session on the reforms of global governance and multilateral system. The BRICS Foreign Ministers held their last meeting on the margins of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 26 September 2025. The meeting was chaired by India in its capacity as the incoming chair for BRICS 2026,” he added.
The MEA spokesperson also reflected on the participating countries, joint statement and the issue of joint statement.
“Several foreign ministers from BRICS countries will be participating. Some of them, I think, will be arriving this afternoon. And as and when they arrive, you’ll come to know the participation… On the question of joint statement, we will come back to you on this. We will let you know as things progress,” he said.
“BRICS works on the basis of consensus. So it is for the BRICS countries to decide as to what to do with membership. The expansion has happened recently; partner countries’ expansion happened in Kazan, and earlier in Johannesburg; several other countries joined the BRICS grouping. So it is something for the BRICS group to decide based on the kind of consensus that they developed among themselves,” he added.
India holds the BRICS chair in 2026 guided by the theme of ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, reflecting a people-centric and humanity-first approach articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 17th BRICS Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 2025.
BRIC was formalised at the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in 2006. The inaugural BRIC Summit was convened in Russia’s Yekaterinburg in 2009. It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010. South Africa attended the third BRICS Summit in 2011.
Last month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit India to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi.
Addressing a media briefing in Moscow, Zakharova said that Lavrov will also hold discussions with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on bilateral ties, the schedule of contacts, especially the preparation of meetings of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation besides other issues of mutual interest.
“On the 14th and 15th of May, the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov will participate in a full-fledged session or council, of the foreign ministries of BRICS countries in New Delhi. This session under the Indian presidency will become a good opportunity for detailed and profound discussion of relevant issues of international agenda, prospects for improving the system of global governance, focusing on increasing the role of the states of the world majority, special attention will be given to further steps to develop strategic partnership in the context of preparing the 18th BRICS summit that will take place in New Delhi in September this year and the participation of the foreign ministers of partner states of BRICS will be possible some of the sessions,” Zakharova stated.
(IANS)
