Gadkari to chair BRICS transport ministers' meet in Nagpur
A two-day BRICS Transport Ministers' Meeting was held in Nagpur under India's BRICS Chairship for 2026.
The meeting was organised under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
Delegates from BRICS member countries discussed sustainable transport, infrastructure resilience, clean mobility, logistics and multimodal connectivity.
This was the third meeting of the BRICS Transport Working Group, following earlier working-group level discussions.
BRICS — Structure, Expansion and India's Chairship
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) is an intergovernmental grouping of major emerging economies formed in 2009 (with South Africa joining in 2010) as a platform for cooperation on economic, financial and political issues outside traditional Western-led institutions. It functions through annual rotating chairship rather than a permanent secretariat, with sectoral "working groups" (e.g., on transport, finance, health) that meet through the year to prepare ministerial and leaders' summits.
Key Details
- Founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China (2009); South Africa joined 2010, forming "BRICS."
- Expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE formally joined on 1 January 2024; Indonesia joined 6 January 2025, taking full membership to 10 (with Saudi Arabia's status still contested/pending in various accounts).
- BRICS also has a category of "Partner Countries" (e.g., Belarus, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Bolivia) admitted from 2025.
- The New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai, is BRICS's key financial institution, established in 2015.
India holds the BRICS Chairship for 2026, giving it the responsibility to host working-group and ministerial meetings — such as the Transport Ministers' Meeting in Nagpur — that feed into the annual BRICS Summit's agenda.
BRICS Sectoral Working Groups and Sustainable Transport Cooperation
BRICS working groups are technical bodies where member states coordinate policy positions and best practices on specific sectors before leaders' summits. The Transport Working Group focuses on connectivity, logistics resilience and sustainable/clean mobility among member economies, reflecting BRICS's broader push for South-South cooperation on infrastructure.
Key Details
- This was the 3rd meeting of the BRICS Transport Working Group, indicating an institutionalised annual cycle of sectoral engagement.
- The 2026 theme, "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," was set by India as chair and aligns with India's own "Viksit Bharat 2047" vision for a climate-conscious, digitally enabled transport ecosystem.
- Discussion areas included electric mobility, digital technologies, circular economy solutions and multimodal connectivity.
The Nagpur meeting shows how India uses its BRICS Chairship year to align a multilateral grouping's technical agenda (transport resilience and sustainability) with its own domestic infrastructure priorities.
- BRICS founding year: 2009 (Brazil, Russia, India, China); South Africa added 2010.
- 2024 expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE (from 1 January 2024).
- 2025 expansion: Indonesia (from 6 January 2025).
- New Development Bank established: 2015, headquartered in Shanghai.
- Meeting: 3rd BRICS Transport Ministers'/Working Group Meeting, held in Nagpur, two-day format.
- 2026 BRICS theme: "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," under India's Chairship.