India BRICS Summit: Modi calls for critical minerals not to be weaponized and emphasizes common prosperity of the global South

India's BRICS representative Dalela said today that the main focus of the two-day BRICS summit discussion was to share cooperation mechanisms and results with the global South. Indian Prime Minister Modi even publicly called for not to weaponize key minerals to avoid hindering common prosperity.

The BRICS (BRICS) will hold a two-day summit at the Indian Convention Center (Bharat Mandapam) in New Delhi starting from the 12th. Today, member countries will communicate with representatives of partner countries and international or regional organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the African Union (African Union), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

India appointed Sudhakar Dalela, undersecretary in charge of economic relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as its representative for BRICS affairs. He will be responsible for coordinating and consulting with other BRICS countries on behalf of the New Delhi authorities and paving the way for decisions at the leaders' summit.

The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference after the BRICS summit today. Dalela said at the conference that today's exchange brought together representatives of various organizations and countries to discuss the issues we all face. This continues India's emphasis on "resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability" as the core axis when it held the rotating chairmanship of the BRICS this year.

Dalela mentioned that today’s discussion emphasized that as the global economy grows, the Global South cannot be excluded and should be allowed to participate and benefit together.

He pointed out that Narendra Modi welcomed representatives of various countries and organizations at today's meeting, and said that India was trying to transform the common vision of the BRICS countries into mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation results.

Dalela said that when Modi talked about inclusive growth, he mentioned that the solutions developed by the BRICS countries should not only benefit the BRICS countries, but also need to meet the needs of the global South. Cooperation among the BRICS countries must be pragmatic and executable, need to be people-centered, and cannot just stop at slogans.

When asked about critical minerals, Dalela pointed out that critical minerals are indeed a very important area with potential for cooperation. During India's tenure as the rotating chairmanship of the BRICS this year, there were some discussions on this issue, and the relevant content was also included in the "New Delhi Declaration" announced yesterday.

The New Delhi Declaration mentioned that it is necessary for BRICS countries to promote the establishment of a reliable, responsible, diversified, resilient, fair, sustainable and just supply chain of critical minerals to ensure that resource-rich countries can achieve benefit sharing, value appreciation and economic diversification, while fully safeguarding their sovereignty over mineral resources and the right to adopt, maintain and implement necessary measures to achieve legitimate public policy objectives. Critical minerals play a key role in the development of net-zero and low-emission energy technologies, energy security and the resilience of energy supply chains.

At today's summit, Modi also bluntly said: "The weaponization of technology and critical minerals will hinder our common prosperity. Therefore, we emphasize that when promoting the application of science and technology, all countries should be able to participate fairly and benefit from it."