8th BRICS Summit 2016

The 2016 BRICS summit was the eighth annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of country or heads of government of the five member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The summit was held from 15 to 16 October 2016 at the Taj Exotica hotel in Benaulim, Goa, India.India holds the chair of the BRICS from February 2016 to December 2016.

 The two day summit was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Michel Temer and South African President Jacob Zuma.

Theme- The theme for the summit was “Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions”.


Key Highlights of Goa Declaration 

• BRICS nations condemns terrorism in all its forms and stressed that there can be no justification for such acts. 

• International terrorism, especially the Islamic State (IS) is an unprecedented threat to international peace and security. BRICS nations reaffirmed the commitment to increase effectiveness of the UN counter terrorism framework. 

• Need for adaptation of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN General Assembly. Urgent need to reforms of the United Nations, including UN Security Council, to increase representation of developing countries. 

• Resolution of civil war in Syria, in accordance with the “legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria” and action against U.N.-designated terrorist groups like IS and Jabhat al-Nusra. 

• All nations must counter radicalism and block sources of financing international terrorism, dismantling terrorist bases and countering misuse of the Internet including social media. 

• Appreciated progress in implementation of Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership and emphasise importance of BRICS Roadmap for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation until 2020. 

• Welcomed adoption of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. Reiterated determination to use all policy tools to achieve the goal of sustainable and inclusive growth. The ninth BRICS Summit will be hosted by China in 2017.

BRICS-BIMSTEC Summit

Besides, first-ever BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit was also held on side-lines of 2016 BRICS Summit. Leaders from both forums planned to jointly explore possibilities of expanding ties between them on issues such as terrorism, economy, trade and connectivity. BIMSTEC stands for Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. BIMSTEC member
countries are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

Leaders of BIMSTEC member countries were invited by India, who is a member of both BRICS and BIMSTEC, to hold a joint summit with the BRICS, for latter's regional outreach.

Representatives of the BIMSTEC states in attendance
Bangladesh - Sheikh Hasina, Prime minister

Bhutan – Tshering Tobgay, Prime minister

Myanmar – Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor

Nepal – Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prime minister

Sri Lanka – Maithripala Sirisena, President

Thailand – Virasakdi Futrakul, Vice-Minister