India begins BRICS 2021 chairship with 3-day-long Sherpas' meeting; China extends support

India kicked off its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Chairship with inaugural three-day-long Sherpas' meeting, said Anurag Srivastava, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson on Wednesday. Taking to Twitter he wrote that India looks forward to continuing productive discussions with BRICS partners over next two days.

According to MEA release, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar launched India’s BRICS 2021 website at BRICS Secretariat at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan on February 19.

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China President Xi Jinping may visit India for BRICS summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit India later this year, extending support to India in hosting this year's summit. Speaking about Xi's possible attendance at summit and wher LAC standoff would affect both countries multilateral cooperation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said BRICS had become an influential grouping and Beijing supported New Delhi’s efforts as host. 

“China attaches great importance to BRICS mechanism,” Wang said at a regular press conference on Monday. “ Chinese side supports Indian side in hosting meeting and is willing to work with India and or BRICS countries in expanding cooperation on ecomy, politics and people-to-people exchanges,” Wang was quoted as saying by ANI. 

Wenbin’s statement comes a day after India and China 'positively appraised'  smooth completion of disengment of frontline troops in Pangong Lake area and agreed to continue ir communication and push for a mutually acceptable resolution of remaining issues along Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Western Sector. According to India-China Joint Statement, two sides had a “candid and in-depth” exchange of views on or issues along LAC in Western Sector.

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China Backs India on hosting BRICS 2021

On Monday, China stated that y support India for hosting BRICS Summit 2021 and expressed interest in working with New Delhi to strengn cooperation among five-member group of emerging ecomies of which both China and India are critical members. India assumed BRICS chairmanship for 2021. grouping comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and India is going to hold this year's summit.

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MEA Jaishankar launches BRICS 2021 website

On February 19, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had launched a website for BRICS, a bloc that represents over 3.6 billion people, nearly half world’s population. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Jaishankar had anunced, “Glad to have launched #BRICS2021 website. Will provide a comprehensive snapshot of our strong BRICS engment and exhaustive calendar of events during BRICS at 15 under Chairmanship of India.”

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Reform of 'multilateral system'

MEA added, that this year, priorities for BRICS will include reform of multilateral system, counter-terrorism cooperation, techlogical and digital solutions for sustainable development goals, and enhancing people-to-people cooperation.  website, which is w LIVE, displays updated and dynamic information and useful links related to pillars of BRICS, calendar of events, documents, and ims from previous meetings. 13th BRICS Summit will be held under India’s Chairship in 2021, and it will be  third time India will host BRICS Summit after 2012 and 2016. me for India’s Chairship for 2021 would be ‘BRICS @ 15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation, and Consensus’. 

(With ANI Inputs)