Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday warned that the "weaponisation of technology and critical minerals" could hinder shared global progress, while calling for greater inclusivity in the adoption of new technologies and stronger cooperation with the Global South.
Addressing the opening session of the second day of the BRICS Summit on ‘Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth’, Modi said India's presidency had focused on translating these four pillars into practical cooperation, particularly as conflicts, pandemics, climate disasters and supply-chain disruptions increasingly affect economies and ordinary people across borders.
He also called for greater resilience within the BRICS grouping, saying rising geopolitical tensions were adversely affecting ordinary people across the world and underlining the need for the bloc to work together to address these challenges.
The Prime Minister made the remarks in the presence of leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
"The weaponisation of technology and critical minerals can hinder our shared progress. Therefore, we have emphasised inclusivity in the adoption of technology," Modi said.
His remarks come as critical minerals assume growing strategic importance for clean-energy systems, advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies, making access to reliable and diversified supplies an increasingly important element of economic and geopolitical resilience.
Modi said the interconnected nature of today’s world required BRICS countries to strengthen their ability to anticipate and respond to crises, pointing to initiatives including an integrated early-warning system for infectious diseases, disaster-management data guidelines and a logistics supply-chain cooperation framework.
On innovation, he highlighted the BRICS Incubator Network, the proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund and the BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture, which aims to connect artificial intelligence, geospatial technology and digital public infrastructure with the needs of farmers. Modi also stressed that BRICS cooperation should extend beyond governments and involve entrepreneurs, farmers, researchers, women, youth and ordinary citizens.
"Our endeavour has been to ensure that BRICS cooperation does not remain limited to governments alone," he said, citing initiatives aimed at skills development, women's workforce participation, social security, capacity building and support for small businesses.
On the subject of sustainability, Modi said development and environmental protection should not be viewed as competing priorities. "In Indian civilisation, nature has been accorded the status of a mother," he said, adding that India had long believed that development and the environment were "not alternatives to each other, but are complementary."
He highlighted BRICS cooperation on smart grids and energy storage, agro-ecology and regenerative agriculture, as well as efforts to integrate traditional and indigenous knowledge with modern science for climate adaptation.
Modi also placed the Global South at the centre of India's BRICS approach and said that the grouping's appeal had grown because developing countries were being treated as partners in shaping solutions. "Their voices are heard. Their experiences are respected. And solutions are developed not for them, but together with them," he said.