17th BRICS Summit 2025: 6 and 7 July Latest Updates for UPSC Students

17th BRICS Summit 2025: The 17th Edition of the BRICS Summit brings together all the member nations to have discussions on the important issues like global changes, south-south cooperation, climate change,etc. The BRICS grouping was started as BRIC in 2001 with being a 4-member group i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined in 2011. The BRICS nations represent approximately 49% of the world’s population, 40% of the world GDP, and 26% of the world trade. In this article, learn more about the 17th BRICS Summit, its results, BRICS Nations, Its history, and much more.

What is BRICS Summit?

BRICS Summit is an annual meeting of the Head of the States and Government of the BRICS nations. It provides a platform for the nations to have political discussions, strategic planning, and cooperation among the major economies of the world. The discussions are being held on a variety of topics like geostrategic planning, geopolitical planning, climate change, economic development, and other major issues.

Theme of 17th BRICS Summit

This year the theme of the BRICS Summit is “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.” The 17th edition of the BRICS Summit was hosted by Brazil at Rio de Janeiro from 6-7 July, 2025. The summit emphasized on South-South cooperation and a multipolar world.

Key Highlights of the 17th BRICS Summit

The 17th BRICS Summit was centered around the idea of a multipolar world and the challenges it faces. The emerging economies believe that there must be a platform to discuss and consult these challenges while parallelly promoting just and equitable global governance. The 17th BRICS Summit which was Chaired by the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was themed around two major points:

1. South-South Cooperation

2. BRICS Partnerships for Overall Development

The agenda signed by the member nations sticks around 6 themes:

1. Finance

2. Health

3. Artificial Intelligence

4. Climate Change

5. Promoting Peace, Security, and International Stability

The Summit resulted in the signing of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration by the member countries. This document outlined the important key outcomes of the Summit, and the future path.

Rio de Janeiro Declaration and the BRICS Summit 2025

The Rio de Janeiro Declaration outlines the agenda set by the member nations to make the world more multipolar and to promote participation of developing countries and emerging markets to enhance more inclusive and equitable economic globalization and cooperation. The outcomes of the BRICS Summit are:

• Finance: The member nations have emphasized the need to increase the IMF quota and World Bank shareholding of emerging and developing countries.

• Health: Focused on global health cooperation. Supporting efforts to strengthen the global health architecture by promoting equality, inclusion, transparency, and responsiveness.

• Artificial Intelligence: To establish a collective global effort for AI governance that upholds shared values, addresses risks, builds trust, and ensures broad and inclusive international collaboration and access.

• Climate Change: Adoption of a Climate Framework Declaration and recognition of a Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF) as an innovative mechanism to mobilize long-term financing for tropical forest conservation.

• Promoting Peace, Security, and International Stability: Promoted the idea of UN reforms, counter-terrorism, and global conflict resolution.

Member Countries of the BRICS Grouping

There are 11 member nations in the BRICS grouping as of now. BRICS was started as BRIC in 2001 with only four members viz. Brazil, Russia, India, and China. In 2011, South Africa was added into the grouping and BRIC evolved into BRICS. Then again in 2024, more members were added to the grouping namely Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as full members. In 2025, Indonesia joined as the new member.