Vietnam PM Proposes 3 Key Directions at BRICS Summit

At the 18th BRICS Summit held in New Delhi, India, Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung proposed three key directions for the bloc to strengthen its role in the coming period. He stated that Vietnam supports and wishes for closer coordination between BRICS and regional, sub-regional, and global multilateral mechanisms to contribute to peace, stability, cooperation, and create equal and sustainable development opportunities for all nations. Appreciating the summit's priorities of "Self-Reliance, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainable Development," Prime Minister Hung put forth the first direction: shifting from responding to fluctuations to proactively enhancing the resilience and self-reliance of economies. This involves strengthening cooperation and supporting developing countries in consolidating flexible policy-making capacity, management, and strategic forecasting, improving labor productivity, self-reliance, and economic dynamism, thereby promptly preventing crises and proactively responding to shocks, especially in economic, financial, and cross-border challenges. The second direction proposed is to renew traditional growth drivers while creating new, inclusive, and sustainable growth drivers. This can be achieved through enhanced policy coordination on trade and investment, market opening, leveraging existing financial institutions, and mobilizing more long-term, cost-effective resources to help developing countries gain fairer access to capital for digital and green transitions. The third direction focuses on transforming cooperation opportunities in science, technology, and innovation into specific programs and projects that serve the common interests of nations. This includes joint research activities, human resource training, and technology transfer, particularly in high-impact areas such as artificial intelligence, digital technology, smart agriculture, and clean energy. Prime Minister Le Minh Hung affirmed that Vietnam is ready to accompany BRICS with responsibility, goodwill, and practical cooperation to build a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive future for all countries and peoples. The 18th BRICS Summit is the most important event in India's BRICS Presidency Year 2026, marking the 20-year journey of the bloc's formation and development. Prime Minister Modi emphasized that the priorities for BRICS 2026 are to build a foundation of self-reliance, innovation, cooperation, and sustainability, based on a "people-centered, humanity-first" approach. He stressed the need to translate cooperation priorities into concrete, practical outcomes that directly benefit people and proposed that member states jointly recommend reforms to global governance on three pillars: representation, responsiveness, and rule-building. The summit discussed various international and regional issues of mutual concern, including the reform of global governance and multilateral institutions, measures to maintain regional peace and stability, and promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Leaders affirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation across the three pillars of politics-security, economy-finance, and culture-people-to-people exchanges, promoting peace, and building a more representative and equitable international order. They also agreed to promote multifaceted cooperation in trade, investment, finance-monetary, science, technology, innovation, energy security, agriculture, food security, just energy transition, environmental protection, health, and people-to-people exchanges. Leaders also emphasized the need to ensure energy market stability and maintain uninterrupted energy flows from diverse sources, enhancing resilience and protecting critical energy infrastructure.