By Dhairya Maheshwari
A meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Culture was held in South Africa on Friday. The ministers signed the ‘Declaration of the VIII BRICS Ministers of Culture Meeting’ to increase cultural cooperation among the five states.
The BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—have agreed to "strengthen the protection of cultural heritage" as well as "jointly safeguard" their cultural treasures, according to an official statement on Saturday.
The statement, shared by the Russian Embassy in South Africa, said that the five nations vowed to promote digital cultural exchanges and cooperation.
It said that the BRICS members would also “adhere to pragmatic cooperation” in culture and the arts and “optimize” the use of existing platforms towards that end.
The BRICS nations also said that they would increase youth cultural exchange activities and boost interactions among the youth of their countries.
According to information available with India’s Ministry of Culture, the BRICS established a ministerial mechanism for cultural cooperation in 2015, with the first meeting of the culture ministers taking place in Moscow in 2015.
An ‘Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Culture’ signed among the BRICS states the same year aims to deepen cultural cooperation among the five nations through increased people-to-people exchanges.
India to Strengthen People-to-People Ties With Other BRICS Members
Meenakshi Lekhi, India’s Minister of State (MoS) for Culture and External Affairs, represented New Delhi at the BRICS meeting, the Ministry of Culture said.
At the meeting, Lekhi highlighted that BRICS was one of the “most important economic blocs” in the world, as it represented nearly 31.5 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and comprised 43 percent of the overall population.
“Significantly, the BRICS have seen their economic influence increase over the past decades, as drivers of global growth, trade and investment, even overtaking the G7 countries in many respects,” she said.
Lekhi said on Saturday that she also held meetings with her counterparts from China, Russia and South Africa on the margins of the culture ministers’ meeting.
“We discussed ways for further strengthening bilateral relations including vibrant cultural ties and people to people exchanges,” she said after her meeting with Andrey Malishev, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Culture.
This article originally appeared at sputnikglobe.com