Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the BRICS Outreach meeting - Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, June 11, 2024

BRICS OUTREACH MEETING
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Day 2 - Opening session
 
Minister Sergey Lavrov, thank you for the hospitality in the beautiful city of Nizhny Novgorod.
 
Distinguished Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
 
The presence here today of a diverse group of nations interested in strengthening their ties with BRICS is very auspicious. It reassures us that we have successfully established ourselves as a resounding platform of the Global South.
 
It has been sixteen years since we held our first meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs. In this first gathering with the presence of our new BRICS members, it becomes clear that our leaders took a wise and historic decision in Johannesburg last year.
We are grateful that five countries accepted the invitation and embraced the BRICS spirit.
 
Our leaders have not closed the door. They reaffirmed BRICS’ openness and they tasked us to develop the BRICS partner country model. I am confident that we can reach an agrement by the next summit in Kazan, that includes a geographically balanced group of countries and reflects our diverse cultures, social and political systems, while subscribing to BRICS guidelines and fundamental principles.
 
Minister Lavrov,
 
BRICS is a force for reform in the international order. BRICS expansion is both the result of changes in the international order and the cause for further and positive change towards a true multipolarity.
 
We are navigating challenges unseen in decades. The global architecture built more than seventy years ago is in disarray. The world has collectively failed to overcome hunger and poverty. A tipping point in global warming is looming and conflicts and humanitarian disasters are proliferating.
 
We cannot be indifferent to what is happening in Gaza. While we condemned the attack by Hamas on October 7th last year, Israel’s reaction has gone past beyond what is acceptable under International Law. We cannot be complicit with the deaths of thousands of innocent lives, the virtual destruction of the civilian infrastructure, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, the forced displacement of millions of people, and the imminent famine in the enclave.
 
Brazil has unequivocally been demanding the end of hostilities, the release of hostages, the unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance, and the resumption of negotiations towards the concrete consolidation of a two-State solution. As President Lula has often reiterated, time is long past for the realization of the Palestinian aspirations for statehood and self-determination.
 
BRICS has been consistently calling for a more representative, fairer international order, with a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system.
 
It advocates for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council, with a view to rendering it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient.
 
The Johannesburg II Declaration, adopted by our leaders last year, emphasizes the need for increased representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships so that it can adequately respond to prevailing global challenges and support the legitimate aspirations of emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America to play a greater role in international affairs, in particular in the United Nations, including its Security Council.
 
BRICS has also been a force for change in the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organization, so they can respond to the challenges facing developing countries.
 
Inequality, within and across countries, has reached unprecedented levels, harming our societies’ cohesion and the sense of fairness. Only through a bold and decisive internationl tax agenda, including a global tax on wealth, can we address this crucial issue for our time.
 
This year, Brazil chairs the G20 and is part of the group’s troika along with India and South Africa, with whom we share a long and fruitful history of cooperation. We have brought development to the forefront of the group’s agenda, by electing three priorities: combatting climate change, promoting energy transition and sustainable development; fighting hunger and inequality, through the launch of a global Alliance Against Hunger; and reforming global governance.
 
Allow me to extend an invitation to all countries here represented. For the first time in the group’s history, we are convening a G20 Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting during the High-level Week of the United Nations General Assembly next September, in New York, aimed at making a call to action on global governance reform.
 
The meeting will be open to all UN members. On behalf of the Brazilian Government, I hope to meet you all again there.
 
Thank you.