Promising Fields for Cooperation Within BRICS: Recommendations of the Academic Forum
26/06/2024
The 2024 BRICS Academic Forum took place in Moscow on May 22–24 under the motto "BRICS: New Figures at the Global Chessboard." The Forum is a key venue for encouraging interaction among members of the expert community, scholars, and members of the expert community as well as for advancing the growth of academic exchanges. Additionally, it fosters better communication between governments and the expert community in the BRICS countries, which in turn facilitates the development of professional recommendations for the national leaders of the BRICS member states. This year's BRICS Academic Forum played host to nearly 300 representatives of the expert community from the BRICS countries, including the original five members — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — as well as new members, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Various experts from a diverse range of countries attended the Forum as well, such as those from Algeria, Belarus, Jordan, Canada, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, the United States, Uzbekistan, Uganda, and Switzerland. Representatives of the BRICS countries' respective diplomatic missions in Moscow also took part in the event. The BRICS Expert Centre-Russia at HSE University served as the Forum organizer, while the Roscongress Foundation was responsible for the day-to-day management of the event.
The first Academic Forum was held in 2008, well in advance of the inaugural BRICS Summit, which took place on June 18, 2009. Since the inception of the Forum, the expert community across the BRICS countries has played the role of a key innovator in developing and reshaping the group’s overall agenda, focusing the attention of the national governments to new initiatives and proposing a revolutionary approach to addressing the challenges that the BRICS nations face together. High-level approval of several previously suggested proposals aided in BRICS’s rapid expansion as a platform for global governance.
"The purpose of the BRICS Academic Forum is to serve as a place for partnerships. This is a visionary format that was created to generate innovative, breakthrough ideas, as well as define and map out the BRICS' growth path and how the group's future will look. As stated by Victoria Panova, Head of the BRICS Expert Centre-Russia, Vice Rector at HSE University, and Russia's Sherpa for the Women 20 (W20) group, at the BRICS Academic Forum opening ceremony, “It's no accident that many successful BRICS initiatives, in particular the New Development Bank, were first publicly presented and put forward precisely at the Academic Forum."
As part of the overall Forum agenda, the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC) called a meeting, as has now been customary. The BTTC was established in 2013 by decision of the group's national leaders in accordance with the eThekwini Declaration. And now it serves as a major platform for global discourse among representatives of the expert community from all the BRICS member states.
The 2024 BRICS Academic Forum resulted in the formulation of a range of recommendations from the academic community focused on the further development of cooperation within the BRICS framework. These recommendations will be transmitted directly to the heads of the member states via the sherpas and sous-sherpas of the group's member nations in the run-up to the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.
The first Academic Forum was held in 2008, well in advance of the inaugural BRICS Summit, which took place on June 18, 2009. Since the inception of the Forum, the expert community across the BRICS countries has played the role of a key innovator in developing and reshaping the group’s overall agenda, focusing the attention of the national governments to new initiatives and proposing a revolutionary approach to addressing the challenges that the BRICS nations face together. High-level approval of several previously suggested proposals aided in BRICS’s rapid expansion as a platform for global governance.
"The purpose of the BRICS Academic Forum is to serve as a place for partnerships. This is a visionary format that was created to generate innovative, breakthrough ideas, as well as define and map out the BRICS' growth path and how the group's future will look. As stated by Victoria Panova, Head of the BRICS Expert Centre-Russia, Vice Rector at HSE University, and Russia's Sherpa for the Women 20 (W20) group, at the BRICS Academic Forum opening ceremony, “It's no accident that many successful BRICS initiatives, in particular the New Development Bank, were first publicly presented and put forward precisely at the Academic Forum."
As part of the overall Forum agenda, the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC) called a meeting, as has now been customary. The BTTC was established in 2013 by decision of the group's national leaders in accordance with the eThekwini Declaration. And now it serves as a major platform for global discourse among representatives of the expert community from all the BRICS member states.
The 2024 BRICS Academic Forum resulted in the formulation of a range of recommendations from the academic community focused on the further development of cooperation within the BRICS framework. These recommendations will be transmitted directly to the heads of the member states via the sherpas and sous-sherpas of the group's member nations in the run-up to the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.