External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India at the BRICS Leaders’ Summit on 8 September, hosted virtually by Brazil, as emerging economies prepare a collective response to United States President Donald Trump’s escalating tariff war.
The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the participation on Friday. “The Brazilian Chair of BRICS has called for a virtual meeting. This meeting would be held on (September) 8th. From our side, it will be the External Affairs Minister who will be participating in it. This BRICS summit is at the Leaders’ level,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.
The BRICS includes 10 countries, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russian Federation, South Africa, United Arab Emirates.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the summit to address punitive measures taken by Washington, particularly targeting India and Brazil, the two hardest hit by Trump’s latest trade actions. Officials in Brasília said the talks would also serve to rally major emerging nations in defence of multilateralism.
India has denounced Trump’s tariffs as “unfair and unreasonable.” The US administration recently slapped a 50 per cent duty on a range of Indian goods and followed it with a further 25 per cent surcharge, citing New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.
Also read: BRICS partners back it against Trump tariffs, says Russia
Brazil too has faced sweeping penalties, with coffee and other exports subjected to steep tariffs after Trump accused President Lula of targeting his ally and Brazil’s former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, now facing trial for plotting a coup. Washington has further revoked visas for Brazilian Supreme Court judges and sanctioned the magistrate presiding over the case.
The forthcoming summit will take place against a backdrop of shifting global alignments. Only days ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet in Tianjin. The encounter was widely read as a signal of India’s recalibration following frictions with Washington.
Trump’s rhetoric has grown sharper in recent weeks. On Friday, he declared that the US had “lost India and Russia to China”, posting a photograph of the Tianjin gathering with the words: “May they have a long and prosperous future together!”
The BRICS meeting is expected to discuss not only the tariffs but also plans by member states to expand trade in local currencies, a move Trump has threatened to counter with further economic sanctions.
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