June 5 -“Continuing multifaceted engagement between two large economies! [Indian Foreign Minister] Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the BRICS Ministerial Conference. Both leaders discussed ways to maintain the momentum in bilateral and multilateral cooperation,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar enthusiastically tweeted yesterday after the two held a bilateral meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa on the sidelines of the meeting among the BRICS Foreign Ministers.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang was also enthusiastic. Xinhua reported that Wang had said in their meeting that “China and India working together will accelerate the common development of the two countries, benefit the entire world, and contribute to the progress of human civilization…. China and India have extensive common interests, and they have far more consensus than differences,” he emphasized, according to Xinhua. “The two sides should take bilateral relations and people’s fundamental interests as a starting point at all times, properly handle problems and differences, and prevent the interests of one party from affecting the overall interest. China and India should strengthen coordination and play a constructive role in promoting the development of BRICS cooperation, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other multilateral mechanisms.”
Xinhua reported that India’s Swaraj spoke of the “unprecedented success” of the informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan at the end of April, as it “enhanced mutual trust between the two countries, strengthened cooperation, [and] made the parties more comfortable with each other.” As the two largest developing countries, “the two sides should further strengthen coordination and cooperation within multilateral mechanisms and contribute to preserving the common interests of developing countries,” she said.
The full BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting demonstrates that the BRICS process, uniting five members countries representing much of humanity–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa–remains an active force, despite the “regime change” operations run in Brazil and South Africa in hopes of killing it. Brazil’s Foreign Minister did choose to attend the simultaneous Organization of American States General Assembly meeting in Washington, D.C. in order to support the drive to kick Venezuela out of that body, instead of the BRICS, but that government still had to send its Deputy Foreign Minister to represent it.
According to both Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and the Chinese Foreign Ministry press spokesman, the meeting was “constructive and thorough,” as the ministers agreed the purpose of the BRICS remains that of building “a brighter shared future for the global community,” as the final communiqué states.
