Russia to hand over BRICS chairmanship to Brazil at final meeting of Sherpas

The final meeting of BRICS Sherpas and Sous-Sherpas is taking place in Ekaterinburg on 27-28 November. Sergey Ryabkov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and a Sherpa in the association, emphasised that the group's resilience has strengthened with its expansion.

During the meeting, the Russian deputy foreign minister summarised the results of Russia's BRICS chairmanship and thanked his colleagues for their joint work.

"Frankly speaking, for us this is both a moment of sadness and a moment of joy. Sadness, because we are approaching the end of our chairmanship, and although it is only November, tomorrow we will have the ceremony of handing over the chairmanship. But it is also a moment of joy, because we have achieved great results together this year"

Sergey Ryabkov Russian Deputy Foreign Minister

In addition, he said that the BRICS member countries for 2024 have demonstrated significant progress in all areas of cooperation, including politics and security, economy and finance, and humanitarian ties. He said Russia has held more than 250 events and a number of other meetings are scheduled before the end of the year.

Speaking about the results of the Russian presidency, Ryabkov highlighted the agreements on the establishment of the BRICS grain exchange, the contact group on climate and sustainable development, the establishment of a geological, technological and investment platform, as well as the creation of a working group on nuclear medicine.

The Deputy Minister expressed confidence that the achievements of the current year will become a solid foundation for future interaction between the BRICS countries and will allow Brazil to further build on these successes in its chairmanship.

The XVI BRICS Summit took place in Kazan on 22-24 October, which became the key event of the Russian presidency. The summit resulted in the adoption of the Kazan Declaration. In addition, the group's member states agreed on the list of BRICS partner countries.

The group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and from 2024 – Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. Earlier it became known that Belarus, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand became BRICS partners.

Photo: Anatoly Medved / photo host agency brics-russia2024.ru