BRICS Must Counter Global Trade Attacks On Group: Indian External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar

United Nations: Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM), S Jaishankar has called for BRICS to prepare to meet the onslaught on the global trade system, which is also aimed particularly at the group and singles out some members. “As rising protectionism, tariff volatility and non-tariff barriers impact trade flows, BRICS must defend the multilateral trading system”, EAM Jaishankar told the group’s foreign ministers here on Friday.

US President Donald Trump has threatened BRICS members that he would impose an extra tariff for being part of it, and has separately, on other grounds, imposed total tariffs of 50 per cent on India and Brazil, and 30 per cent on most imports from South Africa. While speaking of the risks BRICS is facing, Jaishankar did not name the US. Ethiopia’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadera Abera Admassu, who participated in the meeting, also proposed joint action.

He said on X, “I called for stronger collective action to tackle global challenges”. “BRICS has a historic role to play in advancing peace, reforming global institutions, and in shaping a fairer, more secure world for the Global South”, he said. EAM Jaishankar said on X, “When multilateralism is under stress, BRICS has stood firm as a strong voice of reason and constructive change”.

Jaishankar also participated in the foreign ministers’ meeting of IBSA, the India, Brazil and South Africa group of democracies that are also emerging economies on three continents. He wrote on X, “IBSA made a strong call for the transformative reform of the UNSC (Security Council). Discussions (were) also on IBSA Academic Forum, maritime exercise, Trust Fund and intra-IBSA trade”.

At the BRICS ministers’ meeting also UN reforms came up. “Beyond the trade system, BRICS must also pursue with vigour a comprehensive reform of the principal organs of the United Nations, especially the Security Council”, Jaishankar told the ministers. “In a turbulent world, BRICS must reinforce the message of peacebuilding, dialogue, diplomacy and adherence to international law”, he added.

BRICS – an acronym made up from the names of it first members, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – brings together ten emerging economies to cooperate on economic and social development issues. When it succeeds Brazil next year as the chair of BRICS, Jaishankar said India “will focus on food and energy security, climate change, and sustainable development through digital transformation, startups, innovation, and strengthened development partnerships”.

Technology and innovation will define the next phase of BRICS cooperation, he said. Trump’s umbrage is fueled by reports that BRICS may create its own currency for trade to rival the dollar. “BRICS was set up to hurt us, BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar, take it off as the standard", Trump claimed.

However, any idea of a BRICS currency was quashed by India, a fact acknowledged by Sergio Gor, a close associate of the President, at a Senate panel hearing on his nomination to be Washington’s Ambassador to New Delhi. One of the programmes of BRICS is the New Development Bank, which makes concessional lending to countries of the Global South. A report by Reuters on Friday said that the NDB plans to “issue its first Indian rupee-denominated bond in the domestic market before end-March 2026”.

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