Meeting virtually under the chairmanship of India, the BRICS countries also laid out a list of changes that would make these institutions examples of effective and representative multilateralism. This is being seen as other countries in the BRICS grouping moving closer to India’s position on the need for reformed multilateralism. India is the current chair of BRICS and the meeting of the foreign ministers is expected to pave the way for a summit of BRICS leaders in September. This comes against the backdrop of India and South Africa jointly moving a proposal at the WTO for a waiver of patents controlling the production of covid-19 vaccines and drugs. South Africa’s Pandor had referred to the joint proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for waiver of patent protections for covid-19 vaccines, in her opening remarks.

Source: Mint June 01, 2021 16:07 UTC