BRICS Summit: Modi welcomes leaders as New Delhi summit enters second day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed BRICS and outreach leaders at Bharat Mandapam as the summit entered its second day. Leaders are set to discuss cooperation, global growth and sustainability after adopting the New Delhi Declaration on Saturday.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday welcomed the leaders of the expanded BRICS grouping as they arrived for the second day of the summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Ghana President John Mahama, Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye, Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos, and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud were among the leaders who arrived at the Bharat Mandapam for the second day of the summit.

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The leaders from BRICS and outreach nations will hold an open session on Sunday focusing on the core pillars of this year’s theme ‘Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth’.

The leaders will deliberate on areas of mutual interest and discuss ways to strengthen cooperation across various sectors among the member states of the group.

Earlier on Saturday, the BRICS nations adopted the ‘New Delhi Declaration’. The declaration commended India for hosting the Outreach/BRICS Plus Dialogue segment of the 18th BRICS Summit, asserting that India’s chairship has injected “new impetus” to strengthen international cooperation and solidarity.

The leaders of BRICS countries, who met for the 18th BRICS Summit held under the theme of ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, reaffirmed their commitment to the BRICS spirit of mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness, collaboration and consensus.

BRICS countries reaching consensus on a Joint Statement on the very first day of the summit being hosted by India at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi has been labelled as a “major diplomatic breakthrough” considering the sharply divergent geopolitical positions among various countries.

The New Delhi Declaration highlighted that, building on two decades of BRICS, the member countries further commit themselves to strengthening cooperation in the expanded BRICS under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people cooperation, and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Several leaders and representatives of nations arrived at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi for a gala dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for BRICS leaders on Saturday evening.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, among other dignitaries, arrived at the venue.

A specially curated vegan gala dinner formed the centrepiece of the evening. The plant-based menu was designed to celebrate India’s culinary diversity while reflecting principles of sustainability, inclusivity and mindful hospitality.

The evening also featured a special cultural performance titled ‘Navarasa — The Universe of Shared Emotions’.

Another highlight was the BRICS Symphony, ‘One Rhythm, Many Cultures’, which brought together musicians from BRICS members and partner countries for a collaborative performance.