🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a press conference following the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (New Delhi, May 15, 2026) 💬 During the talks with India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and during the extended meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we discussed the key areas of our special and privileged strategic partnership, which had been defined during the summits between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, including the latest summit held in New Delhi. We reviewed ways to improve the mechanisms of practical, trade, economic, and investment cooperation that already exists, as well as to further strengthen and expand them in such a way as to remain independent from the negative and unfriendly influence of third countries. We agreed to fortify transport, technology, and investment cooperation, including the joint development of the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Northern Sea Route. Following the tradition, military-technical cooperation between our countries, including the joint production of advanced weapons systems based on cutting-edge defence technologies, remains at a high level. *** ☝️ A highly reliable and solid culture of dialogue has taken shape within #BRICS which is steeped in mutual respect, sovereign equality, and a commitment to taking into account the opinions of all parties and achieving a fair balance of interests as the key to implementing all existing and future agreements. This particular approach, we believe, ensures the resilience and authority of BRICS with the #GlobalMajority and preserves its appeal to a growing number of countries. We placed special emphasis on reviewing crises around the world, including the Middle East, namely, the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and Iran, as well as the situation in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, where, in violation of UN resolutions, even the slightest prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian State are being systematically obstructed. Libya, Yemen, and Syria get intertwined in a web of stark differences that further compounds the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. Virtually every one of these hotspots is the result of gross interference by Western countries in the affairs of a particular country, including armed interventions and regime changes that we have witnessed over the past 15 years, beginning with the Arab Spring. ❌ We spoke about the unacceptability of the continuing practice of unilateral coercive measures aimed at punishing sovereign governments and interfering in their internal affairs. In this context, we reaffirmed our solidarity with our Cuban friends. We clearly spoke in favour of continuing the reform of the global governance system. Essentially, the West which had long promoted the globalisation model originally put forward by the US as the best solution to ensure the development of the international community has, through its own unilateral sanctions, dismantled that universal model, which rapidly fell apart. BRICS and its partner countries now account for more than 40% of global GDP, whereas the share of the G7 which still retains control over the Bretton Woods institutions is barely over 30% of global GDP. Therefore, reform is overdue. Our Western colleagues are trying in every possible way to hold it back, but the trend is irreversible. According to forecasts, average growth rates among BRICS countries will amount to approximately 3.7 to 4% compared to global average growth rates of 2.6% over the coming period. 🤝 We discussed these issues in depth. I believe our main goal has been accomplished. We identified the key themes that will be put on the agenda of the upcoming BRICS Summit in October. Given the circumstances, such an event will undoubtedly become one of the major developments in global politics and the economy. Read in full