The first meeting of BRICS representatives, the so-called “sherpas”, concluded on Wednesday (26) in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, after two days of discussions. Brazil has held the rotating presidency of the bloc since January. At a press conference after the end of the meeting, the Secretary for Economic and Financial Affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Maurício Lyrio, said that there had been convergence on the possibility of taking proposals for a joint statement on climate change and the actions needed to tackle the crisis to the Leaders’ Summit, scheduled for July 6 and 7 in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
“We were very pleased with the good reaction we got to the climate change issue. The COP president himself [André Corrêa do Lago] made a presentation of Brazil’s priorities, which were also very well received. We are even starting to negotiate a specific declaration on the subject for the Leaders’ Summit, thinking that this is a mobilization that the Brazilian government has been making to achieve a very successful COP at the end of the year,” said the ambassador, referring to COP30, which will be held in the city of Belém, northern Brazil, in November.
Lyrio gave a positive summary of the topics discussed at the forum. “The Brazilian presidency assesses that the meeting was very good, or at least exactly as we would have liked it. There was broad support for the priorities the country established and for the group of priorities Brazil established for the Brazilian presidency,” said the ambassador.
A hint to Trump?
The ambassador stressed that building an alliance to eradicate socially determined diseases and neglected tropical diseases is a top priority for the Brazilian BRICS presidency. “Just as we had the Global Alliance Against Hunger at the G20, this health alliance or partnership focused on diseases that affect emerging countries the most is one of the group’s highest priorities, and this was very well received,” said Lyrio, emphasizing the need to strengthen multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the morning, in a statement to the sherpas, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) sent indirect messages to US President Donald Trump, who announced the US withdrawal from the WHO. “Sabotaging the World Health Organization is a mistake with serious consequences,” said the Brazilian president. However, Lyrio avoided attributing the prioritization of the issue to a response to Trump’s measure. “It’s not a measure against any country, it’s not a confrontational approach,” said the diplomat.
Other issues
According to the Brazilian sherpas, the BRICS member countries fully supported a review of the so-called strategic partnership in the economic area, especially on new mechanisms to facilitate commercial exchange. He also said that there was consensus on the need for global governance regarding the use of artificial intelligence and data.
“There was also broad support for the idea that the BRICS should work towards artificial intelligence governance, which should be as inclusive as possible, with the United Nations at the center of this governance. There is more or less consensus on the diagnosis that the issue has to be dealt with as a global governance one, but with an inclusive approach, rather than an exclusive and fragmented one. So, countries agreed that we should also have documents or principles for AI governance,” said Lyrio.
Finally, the last topic debated was the functioning of the bloc itself, with an indication that the terms should be revised, and the definition of a rule for the rotating presidency of the BRICS, as soon as new members join it. According to the ambassador, the Brazilian proposal is that the rotation among the original members should be exhausted and only then would a new schedule begin, according to the alphabetical order of the members.
“The presidency’s assessment is that the group has really shown itself to be very cohesive in reaffirming the importance of multilateralism, international law, international norms and international regimes,” said Lyrio. “We want more multilateralism,” he added.
Next meetings
In April, BRICS foreign ministers will meet to take forward the proposals born during the sherpas meeting. Until then, working groups have been set up to discuss government ministry-related issues. The Summit of Heads of State will take place on July 6 and 7 in Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to Brazil, the bloc is also made up of Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Another nine countries are part of the BRICS in the “partners” category: Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Nigeria.
