BRICS has become part of everyday life for Russians, says Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Over its two decades of operation, the BRICS alliance has matured and is no longer an "unfamiliar concept" to Russians, Deputy Foreign Minister and BRICS Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with the TASS Analytical Center ahead of the group's summit in New Delhi on September 12-13.

"If you were to step outside right now and ask the first person you meet whether they had heard of BRICS, there is a 90 percent chance the answer would be 'yes,'" the diplomat noted. In his view, the bloc is "not some exotic fruit that leaves you wondering how to approach it or peel back the layers; it has already become part of the public discourse and an element of everyday life."

"This is the result of the group's development. It turned 20 this year – a major milestone. The goal now is to ensure there are even fewer reasons to ask whether the person on the street knows what BRICS is and why it exists," Ryabkov added.

The deputy minister cited examples illustrating how BRICS has become better understood by citizens. "I attended the Knowledge Day events at Southwestern State University in Kursk. People there mentioned the BRICS Network University as a format that allows them to draw on innovative methodologies and share their own developments and projects," he said.

"Take another example: we are currently revising the agreement on the joint Earth remote sensing satellite constellation. It needs to be better adapted to the needs of new members and made even more result-oriented. This means that satellite data users have formulated a mission brief, which specialists from the relevant space agencies and foreign ministries, acting as coordinators, must now translate into legal, contractual language. In other words, there is a BRICS component in every sphere that has already become part of day-to-day operations," Ryabkov noted.

According to him, "this is routine work in the best sense of the word, but broadly speaking, it guarantees that there is no longer any room for revisionism within BRICS – or for questioning the very purpose of the endeavor; such things are simply impossible."