Global Health Co-operation

Brics plays a strategic role in promoting sustainable and inclusive development in health, with a focus on equity in access to medicines, vaccines, and essential medical technologies.

The main axes of global health co-operation in Brics in 2025 include: partnership for the elimination of socially determined diseases and neglected diseases, which disproportionately affect certain populations; strengthening the production, technology transfer and distribution of supplies, vaccines and medicines, expanding independence and capacity in research, technological development and innovation; investment in telehealth and digital health, expanding access to quality services and strengthening health infrastructure in remote or underserved regions; integration of artificial intelligence in health, promoting technological innovation and more agile responses to health emergencies; co-operation between universities, public health institutions and players in the sector, boosting research, scientific exchange and technology transfer; and encouraging the monitoring and evaluation of health policies and legislation in the sector.

Under the Brazilian presidency, Brics should strengthen cooperation initiatives between the countries, promoting public health projects that strengthen national systems and guarantee effective responses to epidemiological challenges.

The 11^th Brics Parliamentary Forum can facilitate greater liaison between national parliaments, public health bodies and scientific institutions in order to drive coordinated initiatives that help promote higher levels of protection.

Trade, Investment and Finance

The Brics countries have advocated improving the international financial, trade and monetary systems, strengthening coordination to reform the governance of the multilateral institutions of these systems, strengthening the Global Financial Safety Net and emphasising the need to make international institutions more representative and attuned to the needs of all countries, especially those in the Global South. Brics instruments, such as the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, have great potential to play a fundamental role in this process.

Although the Brics countries play a significant and growing role in the global economy, there is scope for intensifying trade and investment flows between its members. The forum will serve as a forum for parliaments to discuss possible joint modalities, means and instruments aimed at increasing the prosperity of Brics member countries and partners.

Under the Brazilian presidency, some initiatives stand out and deserve to be included in inter-parliamentary discussions: the Network of Think Tanks on Finance, created to deepen dialogue on economic and fiscal policy; the Brics Partnership for the New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR), focused on modernisation of production chains, along the lines of "Industry 4.0", to promote industrial innovation and technology transfer in strategic sectors; the 2030 Strategy for the Brics Economic Partnership, which will update the 2025 Strategy launched at the 11TH Brics Summit in Brasilia; co-operation in the areas of public-private partnerships (PPP), particularly in the financing of climate resilient infrastructure, and in potential joint research, development and innovation (R&D&I) projects in sectors such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and new materials; and tax co-operation with the aim of promoting more equitable, efficient tax systems that combat illegal practices and tax evasion.

Climate Change

Co-operation within Brics is crucial in the fight against climate change, enabling the development of joint strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable energies and protect ecosystems. Furthermore, collaboration fosters the transition to a low-carbon economy and the implementation of innovative environmental policies, with the effective sharing and transfer of clean technologies and the joint development of low-carbon solutions aimed at improving living conditions from a global perspective. The New Development Bank (NDB) plays an important role in mobilising resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the Brics countries, whose core area of operation includes clean energy and energy efficiency.

The Brazilian presidency will promote a Brics Climate Leadership Agenda, and to this end it is essential that this agenda be accompanied by inter-parliamentary discussions, since its effectiveness requires, among other things: adoption of efficient regulatory frameworks, guaranteeing legal certainty for green investments; creation of sustainable financing mechanisms, aligned with the Brics Finance Framework for Climate Change; creation of oversight and transparency mechanisms on the implementation of climate commitments; prioritisation of legislation and budgets that encourage the strengthening of resilient infrastructure and nature-based solutions, as debated in the Brics Disaster Management Working Group. The agenda also prioritises the promotion of legislation that integrates solutions to desertification, soil degradation and drought, in line with the initiatives of the Brics Environmental Working Group, and which includes incentives for restoring ecosystems, reducing plastic pollution, and preserving water resources, with a view to long-term sustainability.

The Brics Parliamentary Forum is a privileged forum for discussions on these issues, especially on climate finance, which is one of the main priorities for COP 30, to be hosted by Brazil in Belém next November.

Artificial Intelligence Governance

The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) requires parliaments to debate the most appropriate frameworks for these new technologies to expand opportunities for development in all countries, reduce inequalities and promote balanced economic growth, allowing the digital economy to benefit everyone involved.

The main points of co-operation within Brics include: ensuring transparency and ethics in AI, mitigating algorithmic bias and guaranteeing fundamental rights; strengthening privacy and data security, ensuring the digital sovereignty of member countries; and promoting partnerships between governments, the private sector and academia, encouraging innovation and knowledge sharing in AI.

Brics parliaments must act to ensure that AI regulation respects human rights, protects the diversity of peoples and avoids unlawful or abusive discrimination, as well as guaranteeing the responsibility of creative companies. Sharing good practices between the bloc's legislatures will strengthen technological governance that is more plural, co-operative, and inclusive and that guarantees privacy, data sovereignty, cyber security and the protection of intellectual property and copyright.

The participation of the industrial and private sectors is essential, especially in the development and implementation of high-performance computing ecosystems, including through shared infrastructure, and in the advancement of enabling technologies such as semiconductors, which are essential for the bloc's digital and technological sovereignty. Complementary partnerships between the Brics countries, encouraged by innovative legislation, are ways of promoting advances in the governance and multilateral development of AI.

Multilateral Peace and Security Architecture

Brics has advocated for a more just, equitable and representative international order, which is reflected in the motto of this edition of the Parliamentary Forum. In the face of significant global transformations and in the context of the group's recent expansion, the forum is consolidating itself as an opportune platform for political and propositional dialogue on the changes needed in the international system, with a reinforced commitment to multilateralism, based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and respect for international law.

The group's vision of international peace and security is firmly anchored in universally recognised principles of international law, including sovereign equality between states, non-intervention in internal affairs, the peaceful settlement of disputes and opposition to unilateral coercive measures incompatible with the UN Charter. While reaffirming the central role of the United Nations, Brics has consistently highlighted the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of this organisation, especially its Security Council. The current structure, conceived in a different era, which turns 80 in 2025, lacks the representativeness, effectiveness and efficiency needed to adequately address contemporary global challenges. The current structure fails to reflect the growing influence and aspirations of emerging and developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.

Parliaments play a crucial role in this endeavour, given their intrinsic institutional characteristics, as they act as legitimate representatives of their nations, voicing domestic concerns around the goal of UN reform. Through collaborative action based on inter-parliamentary co-operation, Brics parliaments can make a significant contribution to building mutual trust and understanding, thereby supporting the development of more effective, democratic, and sustainable mechanisms for maintaining and building international peace and security, in line with more inclusive global governance.

Institutional Development

Since the 1^st Brics Parliamentary Forum, held in Russia in 2015, the group has expanded its membership from 4 to 11 members, as well as 9 partners. This expansion has considerably broadened the scope and complexity of its agenda.

This has led to the need to review and update the group's structure and procedures, as well as implementing initiatives to strengthen the cohesion and efficiency of parliamentary cooperation, improving working methods to strengthen dialogue between parliaments.

Against this backdrop, the relevance of new formats for interparliamentary cooperation is recognised, such as the 1st Brics Women Parliamentarians Forum, held in 2016 in India; the Brics Young Parliamentarians Forums, held in 2017 in China and in 2020 in Russia; and the Meeting of the Chairs of the Committees on International Affairs, held in 2024 in Russia.

Also, along these lines, it should be noted that in the last two editions, in South Africa in 2023 and Russia in 2024, there was a trend towards greater formalisation and institutionalisation of the forum, in an effort to deepen inter-parliamentary cooperation, while respecting the diversity of models among its members. As a result of the forum held in South Africa, in addition to the final declaration, the parties adopted a Memorandum of Understanding. The following year, in Russia, a protocol to the Memorandum of Understanding was approved, with the aim of establishing guidelines for the operation of the Brics Parliamentary Forum. Among other measures, the protocol deals with the organisation of a meeting of the chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committees.

The forum should also emphasise the need to establish mechanisms that increase public and easy access to the final documents produced by the Brics inter-parliamentary dimension, enabling more efficient monitoring of the implementation of the guidelines defined and providing input for addressing key issues in political and economic debates on a global scale.