News: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated today in the 17th BRICS Summit being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 6-7 July 2025.
About 17th BRICS Summit, 2025
- Host (President): Brazil
- Theme: ‘Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance’
- Focus of 2025 Summit: The Brazilian Presidency will focus on two priorities:
- The Global South Cooperation; and
- BRICS Partnerships for Social, Economic, and Environmental Development
- Brazil also proposes to focus on six core areas:
- Global health cooperation;
- Trade, investment, and finance;
- Climate change;
- Artificial intelligence (AI) governance;
- Multilateral peace and security architecture; and
- Institutional development.
About BRICS
- It is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
- Genesis of Idea: The idea of a BRICS-like group can be traced back to Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov and to the two forums RIC (Russia, India, China) and IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa).
- BRIC was originally a term coined by British economist Jim O’Neill.
- First Summit: The first summit in 2009 featured the founding countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, where they adopted the acronym BRIC.
- First expansion: In April 2010, South Africa attended the 2nd BRIC summit as a guest.
- In September 2010, it joined the organization which was then renamed BRICS, and attended the 3rd BRICS summit in 2011 as a full member.
- BRICS expanded to BRICS+ (second expansion): Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attended their first summit as member states in 2024 in Russia.
- Indonesia officially joined as a member state in early 2025, becoming the first Southeast Asian member.
