Learning from history
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Economic development, trade, and engagement among nations are fundamental values, but historical experience shows that these values endure only when they are coupled with the preservation of independence, credible deterrence, and cooperation among sovereign states. History has repeatedly demonstrated that whenever a gap emerges between economic power and national security, the conditions become ripe for domination and intervention by stronger powers.
Each BRICS member represents a great and ancient civilization—civilizations that, throughout history, expanded culture, knowledge, trade, and wealth creation without relying on colonialism or the plunder of other nations. This is also the philosophy underpinning BRICS itself: strengthening multilateralism, advancing balanced development, fostering mutual respect, and promoting a fairer international economic and political order.
At the Hyderabad meeting, the central focus was cooperation on the future of labor, skills development, support for the workforce, and the advancement of social justice. Yet these objectives cannot be achieved in a world engulfed by war, sanctions, insecurity, and instability. Sustainable development is meaningless without lasting peace, and productive employment can only take shape in an environment of security and international cooperation.
Against this backdrop, perhaps one of the most important questions facing BRICS today is how its member states can establish more effective mechanisms for dialogue, mediation, and peacebuilding in times of crisis and conflict. If BRICS aspires to play a meaningful role in shaping the architecture of the emerging global order, it must strengthen not only its economic cooperation but also its capacity to safeguard stability, security, and shared development.
For all its historical grandeur, Hyderabad serves as a reminder that civilizations flourish when tolerance, trade, knowledge, and security go hand in hand. Today, the aspirations of our nations remain the same: prosperity, peace, decent work, and a life lived with human dignity—an aspiration whose realization depends, more than ever, on cooperation and trust among the world's independent nations.