Must ensure that BRICS become more result oriented in next 15 years: PM Modi

In his address to the virtual summit, PM Modi said: "The BRICS platform has witnessed several achievements in the last one and a half decades. Today we are an influential voice for the emerging economies of the world. This platform has also been useful for focusing attention on the priorities of developing nations as well."

"BRICS has created strong institutions like the New Development Bank, the Contingency Reserve Arrangement and the Energy Research Cooperation Platform. These are all very strong institutions. There is no doubt that there is much we can be proud of. However, it is also important that we do not become too self-satisfied and we must ensure that BRICS is even more result oriented in the next 15 years," he said.

Besides the Indian PM, the virtual meet is being attended by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chinese president Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro.

"The theme that India has selected for its tenure of Chairmanship demonstrates exactly this priority - ‘BRICS@15: Intra BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus’. These four Cs are in a way the fundamental principles of our BRICS partnership," said Modi.

He also highlighted that despite the challenges posed by COVID, more than 150 BRICS meetings and programs were organized, out of which more than 20 were at the Ministerial level.

"Along with enhancing cooperation in traditional areas, we have also made efforts to further expand the BRICS agenda. In this context, BRICS has achieved several 'Firsts' meaning there were several things that were done for the first time. Just recently the first ever BRICS digital summit was held," said the Indian PM.

This is the second time PM Modi is chairing the BRICS summit. Earlier he had chaired the Goa summit in 2016.