Brazil's Lula calls BRICS virtual meet, Jaishankar to attend

HIS COUNTRY FACING 50% US tariffs, Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called a virtual meeting of BRICS leaders on September 8 to figure out a response to the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

- SHUBHAJIT ROY

India and Brazil top the list at 50%, and Delhi has decided that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will attend the virtual meeting.

Given the optics of the summit, the thinking in Delhi is that participation, at this stage, should only be at the level of the External Affairs Minister.

In the West, the BRICS and SCO are viewed as anti-Western groupings. Delhi prefers to call them "non-Western groupings".

According to Brazilian officials, Lula wants discussions not only on the tariffs imposed by the Trump government, but also in support of multilateralism.