Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the BRICS online summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the leaders made their first joint appearance at a global forum since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow faces severe criticism and censure from the US-led global alliance over its actions in Ukraine, but New Delhi because of its historical links to the Russia has so far resisted calls from the West to condemn the Kremlin.
BRICS is a major alliance of five emerging economies ― Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — comprising 41 per cent of the world’s population and a quarter of the global gross domestic product.
The multilateral mechanism, formed in 2009, is aimed at promoting peace, security and development in the countries but comes at a time when the global economy is struggling because of the war in Ukraine.
The theme of this year’s summit is "Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development". The summit is being hosted by Beijing, with President Xi Jinping criticising the western nations.
Along with Mr Xi, Mr Modi, Mr Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro joined the two days of discussions.
Mr Putin called upon the BRICS leaders to co-operate to be able to navigate the global economic crisis as he accused the West’s economic sanctions against Russia as “ill-conceived” and "selfish actions".
"Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial co-operation can we look for ways out of this crisis situation, which developed in the global economy because of the ill-conceived, selfish actions of certain states," Mr Putin said.
Mr Modi, however, steered clear of the Ukraine invasion and focused on the pandemic-induced global economic crisis as he emphasised the importance of the alliance for economic recovery.
“We are meeting virtually amid the challenges of the Covid pandemic. Even though the scale of the epidemic has reduced globally ... many of its ill effects are still visible in the global economy,” Mr Modi said. “We, the BRICS member countries, have had a very similar view of the governance of the global economy. And so our mutual co-operation can make a useful contribution to post-Covid global recovery,” he said.
The summit is significant for Beijing, which has been using the forum to counter the US-led global order as it expands its economic and political footprint around the globe.
New Delhi and Beijing have explicitly refused to condemn Moscow over the military invasion and have increased their energy purchases from Russia despite sanctions by the West.
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Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP -
A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP -
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, third left, is shown apartment buildings damaged by Russian shelling during his visit to Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters -
A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA -
A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP -
Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP -
Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP -
An image taken from a video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office purports to show the moment a missile struck the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. AP -
People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP -
Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA -
A woman cries after the body of her husband, who was killed in the yard of an apartment building during shelling, was loaded into an ambulance in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA -
Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA -
A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA -
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA -
A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A giant Ukrainian flag is held up during the benefit concert 'Embrace Ukraine' on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The free event will raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine and the purchase of mobile X-ray equipment that the country needs. EPA -
A fire from a gas processing plant continues to burn behind a field of wheat after it was hit by shelling a few days earlier in Andriivka, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters -
A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA
But India and China are engaged in a tense border dispute in the Himalayas that turned deadly in 2020.
While speaking online at the opening ceremony of BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday, Mr Xi, without naming the Biden administration, criticised the US-sponsored sanctions on Moscow and accused the West of “weaponising” the world economy.
"It has been proved time and again that sanctions are a boomerang and a double-edged sword,” Mr Xi said.
“To politicise, instrumentalise and weaponise the global economy, and to wilfully impose sanctions by taking advantage of one's dominant status in the international financial and monetary systems will only end up hurting one's own interests as well as those of others, and inflict suffering on people around the world," he said.
Indian analysts say New Delhi has adopted a neutral path at the forum as it seeks to secure its energy needs during the global crisis.
“India is kind of guarded in this forum, because there is a lot of double talk by the Chinese on that. But again, the issues of energy security for prizes, those are the things India is concerned with. We are entering into a turbulent phase and so this is seen as a cushion,” Srikanth Kondapalli, a China expert in New Delhi, told The National.
