Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the BRICS Sherpas' meeting – conclusion of the Brazilian presidency

Distinguished Sherpas,

Distinguished Ambassadors,

Dear Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to welcome you once again in Brasília.

Allow me at the outset to acknowledge the many Brazilian ministries and agencies represented in this room. The work carried out throughout this year was truly a whole-of-government effort. It reflects not only the breadth of the BRICS agenda, but also the extent to which our cooperation now reaches well beyond the traditional areas of political and financial coordination.

This has been fully captured in the handover report presented earlier, which provides a detailed account of the meetings and initiatives undertaken throughout Brazil’s Chairship.

It is worth noticing the increase in BRICS’ activities in the last few years, especially since expansion. When Brazil last held the presidency, in 2019, we organized around 120 meetings and 16 ministerial gatherings. This year, we held close to 230 technical meetings and 22 ministerial meetings.

Organizing such a volume of activities requires considerable institutional effort; following them is no less demanding for member states. The expansion of our program makes it evident that our three original pillars of cooperation no longer fully capture the thematic range of our work.

This evolution is inseparable from broader global developments. The collective rise of emerging economies—represented by our countries—has significantly shaped the trajectory of the Global South. From the perspective of BRICS, the Global South has become an important driving force in the transformation of global governance. The sequence of G20 presidencies held by Indonesia, India, Brazil, and South Africa has placed developing countries’ priorities at the center of the international economic agenda.

We meet nearly eighty years after the establishment of the post-Second World War international order. That system had its limitations, as Brazil has often stated, but it provided stability and a platform for cooperation.

Many of us have long argued that reform was necessary in several fora. What we are seeing today, however, goes beyond reform: it is the dismantling of institutions without a shared understanding of what will take their place. This vacuum may serve a few, but it does not serve the majority of states.

It was in this context that the participation of the United Nations Secretary-General, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, and the Director-General of the World Health Organisation at the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro acquired particular significance. Their presence underscored both the recognition of BRICS as a relevant actor in global governance and the expectation that our group can contribute to rebuilding confidence in multilateralism and international order.

Throughout the year, BRICS demonstrated capacity to adapt. When confronted with urgent circumstances, we responded. The developments we faced this year in the trade realm prompted a strengthened focus on trade-related work. We were able to issue a joint statement on the Iran–Israel conflict, expressing solidarity with a fellow BRICS member. In September, at President Lula’s request, we convened a leaders’ videoconference. These steps illustrate the flexibility of our group and the role it has come to play in our foreign policies.

At the same time, we are mindful that consensus-building is increasingly complex in a group that has expanded both in membership and in thematic scope. Yet our influence will depend precisely on our ability to find meaningful consensus that reflects genuine convergence. Each of our countries carries weight when acting alone; acting together, we can shape a new international order in which emerging economies from different continents have their voice effectively heard.

The strong interest in joining BRICS is a reflection of that influence. We should welcome this interest, but also recognize the importance of consolidating the group in its current configuration before considering further expansion. The creation of the “partner country” category was a major development, that helped ease the pressure for enlargement and gave us space to observe how these states engage with the BRICS agenda. We would like to see greater participation from partner countries in technical groups, but many of them are still unfamiliar with the depth and nature of our work. We should all work to bridge this gap.

The interest surrounding BRICS is not limited to potential membership. Throughout the year, in many bilateral meetings I held, BRICS was a recurrent topic. There is genuine curiosity, but also a degree of misinformation. Improving transparency and communicating more clearly our objectives and initiatives should be one of the topics of our agenda ahead.

Brazil understands greater prominence should be given to the cooperation track. Major international issues will remain central to our work, but our societies also expect us to deliver concrete results from our initiatives. BRICS must be seen not only as a forum for dialogue among governments, but also as a platform capable of generating tangible benefits for our peoples.

We also need to expand our dialogue with civil society. Throughout the year, our Chairship strengthened channels for dialogue with organizations, academic institutions, youth groups, and the private sector. We encouraged these actors to contribute with ideas, to follow discussions more closely, and to help communicate the relevance of BRICS to broader audiences. These initiatives are an important step toward ensuring that our cooperation is understood not only within governments, but also by citizens who may look to BRICS for practical solutions and new perspectives.

Colleagues,

As we conclude Brazil’s presidency, I wish to thank each delegation for your engagement and your commitment to the success of our collective work. I would also like to wish India every success in its upcoming presidency, and I kindly ask the Indian delegation to convey these good wishes to Minister Jaishankar.

Thank you very much.