New Delhi, Sept 12: The two-day 18th BRICS Summit opened in New Delhi on Saturday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that the grouping, as it marks 20 years since its establishment, has reached a “coming of age” moment. Welcoming the BRICS leaders at the opening session on ‘Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism’ at Bharat Mandapam, Modi said India’s chairship of the grouping was guided by a people-centric and “Humanity First” approach.

He said resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability had been the key priorities of India’s BRICS Chairship, while special emphasis had also been placed on connecting BRICS cooperation with ordinary people. More than 350 meetings were organised during India’s chairship, with delegations welcomed across around 30 cities, Modi said.

Describing the summit as a historic milestone for the grouping, the Prime Minister said BRICS had established a distinct identity on the global stage over the past two decades. “Today, BRICS too has arrived at its ‘coming of age’ moment,” Modi said, adding that the bloc respected each other’s perspectives and moved forward through consensus.

He stressed that BRICS was “not against anyone” and should continue to advance with an approach of taking everyone along. Calling for greater institutional continuity within the grouping, Modi proposed the establishment of a ‘BRICS Continuity and Implementation Mechanism’ to ensure that initiatives and outcomes were effectively followed up through the existing Troika arrangement despite the annual rotation of the BRICS presidency.

“The time has now come to translate our unity and consensus within BRICS into tangible outcomes on the global stage,” he said, urging member nations to work towards a new agenda for the next 20 years. Modi also called for reforms in global governance, saying the Global South continued to bear the brunt of global crises while remaining underrepresented in decision-making processes.

“The Global South stands in the front row of global crisis but in the back row of decision-making,” he said. The Prime Minister proposed that BRICS nations jointly formulate 10 proposals for global governance reform, with the aim of developing a BRICS reform roadmap by the next summit.

Earlier, Modi welcomed the visiting leaders at Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the summit, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other leaders. India, which assumed its fourth BRICS Chairship on January 1, is hosting the two-day summit under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.