Climate justice is a moral duty for India: PM Modi at BRICS

Under its presidency, India will work to define BRICS in a new form and it will be 'Building Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability', Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the summit of the grouping on Monday.

India will hold the BRICS presidency next year.

In an address at a session on environment and global health, Modi also said that the health of the earth and the health of people are connected to each other.

"For India, climate justice is no alternative; it is a moral duty," Modi said, adding: "Where some people measure it in numbers, India lives it in values." The prime minister also indicated India's possible priorities during its presidency of the BRICS grouping.

"Under India's BRICS presidency, we will work to define BRICS in a new form. BRICS will mean -- Building Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability," he said.

Modi also underlined the need to remain prepared for any eventualities.

The COVID pandemic taught us that viruses do not come taking visas, and solutions, too, are not chosen by looking at passports, he said.

The prime minister also said the developing nations must have the same confidence about the future that the developed nations have.

The self-confidence about the future that developed countries have -- the same self-strength should also be in these countries, he added.

The top leaders of BRICS held deliberations on a range of pressing challenges facing the globe at the grouping's two-day annual summit in this seaside Brazilian city.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin skipped the summit. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also didn't attend the gathering.

The BRICS has emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.

BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.