Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s video address to participants in the official opening of the BRICS Media Summit, Moscow, September 14, 2024

Colleagues,

Friends,

BRICS is a truly unique mechanism for multilateral cooperation. Countries representing different civilisations, religions and macro-regions have productively interacted within its framework for years. The fundamental principles of equality, mutual respect and balance of interests are upheld in full measure. We regard our association as one of the pillars of the multipolar world that is taking shape before our eyes.

We note with satisfaction that Global Majority countries are displaying a growing interest in BRICS. The leaders of the Five, participating in the Johannesburg Summit in August 2023, decided to invite Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join BRICS. Today, another thirty or so applications for BRICS membership are being reviewed by experts, who are preparing a report for the October Summit in Kazan.

Russia has been at the helm of BRICS since January 1, 2024. The Russian Chairmanship has chosen the motto Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security.

The BRICS Media Summit figures prominently among many items on the Chairmanship’s packed agenda.  Debuting as its organiser – with assistance from China’s Xinhua News Agency – is the TASS Information Agency, one of the leaders in the Russian and international information space. 

BRICS media cooperation continues to advance. We observe an intensification of information exchanges and a general build-up of collaboration between media outlets of participating countries. Logically, you have chosen The Role of the BRICS Media Community in Strengthening Stability and Cooperation in the Modern World as the theme of your summit.

The professional work of journalists, editors, managers, and new media experts is particularly relevant amid the historically irreversible process of the emergence of a polycentric world order. The role of media outlets in fostering interstate contacts and an atmosphere of friendship, trust and mutual understanding between nations cannot be overstated. It is encouraging to see that this event brings together both the heads of the leading media outlets of the BRICS countries and representatives of other states of the Global South, East, and the broader Global Majority.   

I am confident that the forum will become a valuable platform for establishing working contacts and exchanging best practices. Hopefully, it will contribute to a constructive information and news agenda based on the truth and verified facts, and enable the multi-million audiences in the BRICS countries to gain access to full and reliable information on developments in our countries and the world as a whole.

I wish you productive work and all the best.