In her welcome remarks, HSE University Vice Rector Victoria Panova, who serves as Head of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia, noted that the expert communities in the BRICS member states have been cooperating productively over the course of more than 15 years and began their joint work even before the first BRICS Summit in 2009. "In 2013, the final declaration of the [5th] BRICS Summit in Durban expressed support for the decision to create a Council of BRICS expert centres, which would coordinate the group's expert track, set the strategic trajectory for the development of the BRICS as a whole, and develop and elaborate concrete initiatives. One such initiative is the system of indicators for monitoring BRICS activity, which was worked out in 2020 for analyzing and assessing results achieved, as well as the group's contribution toward the development of each member state individually," she said, adding that the expert communities of the new member states will undoubtedly augment and enrich the joint work with fresh ideas.
Victoria Panova emphasized that politicizing scientific and academic cooperation is unacceptable and reiterated that the Academic Forum brings together the best minds among experts, professors, and researchers. This year, experts from the [five] countries that have just recently joined BRICS are also taking part in the Forum for the first time. "The Forum is a platform for an equal, non-discriminatory partnership. I wish to underscore that the doors to our expert community remain open for all who understand the importance of BRICS as one of the institutions of global governance, who understand the need for an international expert dialogue, and as well who recognize that the politicization of scientific and academic cooperation is unacceptable," the Head of the BRICS Expert Council stressed.
The HSE University Vice Rector reported that the event has brought together more than 200 delegates, who are taking part in the work of 12 separate sessions dedicated to the most relevant themes for BRICS, including political and security issues, economics and finance, energy, high technology, climate, culture, and tourism. "As a representative of the expert and academic community, I sincerely hope that cooperation among experts under the umbrella of the new BRICS will become even more productive and successful, from the perspective of both formulating concrete initiatives for the future of BRICS and fostering contacts among members of the academic and scientific communities. I am confident that the current BRICS Academic Forum will provide a powerful impulse for the work to be done in each of these areas," Victoria Panova summarized.