NEW DELHI, October 26 (Aalimi Nation) – India hosts the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in the capital on Monday and Tuesday, with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla chairing the meeting at the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan in the Parliament complex.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend and to meet the leaders of visiting delegations, including Speakers of several countries, after the inaugural session. The Vice President will host a dinner for delegates.
BRICS Parliamentary Forum: theme and agenda
Mr. Birla announced the arrangements at a press conference at Parliament House. He said the main theme is the strengthening of parliaments for people-centric development.
Officials said eleven BRICS member countries and ten partner countries have been invited. Mr. Birla said the Speakers of Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia will not take part.
The programme includes four high-level sessions on resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability, aimed at consensus-based dialogue. Delegates are also expected to discuss terrorism. Topics listed for the sessions include innovation in artificial intelligence and digital technologies, a representative global governance system built through parliamentary cooperation, and the role of parliaments in building a sustainable and inclusive future.
A separate meeting will bring together the chairpersons of international affairs committees from member and partner parliaments to discuss parliamentary diplomacy, capacity building and best practices.
Who will attend
Besides foreign delegations, Union ministers, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, presiding officers of state legislatures and Members of Parliament are expected to be present. Delegation secretaries met on Sunday to work on the joint statement. Mr. Birla said he hopes a joint declaration will be adopted by consensus.
Birla's message
In an article published ahead of the forum, Mr. Birla described BRICS as an influential anchor of the Global South and a driver of the multilateral order. He said parliamentary engagement within the grouping has grown, and that the forum is a chance to affirm that global governance must belong to every citizen of the world.
He said parliaments of the grouping act as moral frameworks for governance that uphold the democratic ethos of their peoples. The forum, he wrote, is meant to strengthen dialogue, cooperation and collective action among members and partners, and to examine how legislatures can help turn the consensus of this year's BRICS Summit into domestic policies and programmes.
Other remarks at the press conference
Asked about the possibility of a special session of Parliament, Mr. Birla said: "As far as a special session is concerned, anything is possible in the future." Responding to a question on his political position, he said: "I am neither left nor right. I am in the middle."
On artificial intelligence, he said it should be used with caution and that complete dependence on it would be wrong. He added that 64 parliamentary friendship groups have been formed so far and that several countries have asked for more. Members of any party, he said, will be invited if they belong to a friendship group.
What happens next
Delegates will hold their sessions over the two days, after which the Speaker is expected to seek adoption of the joint declaration. Details of the final text had not been released at the time of writing, and the proceedings of the inaugural session were not yet available.
