समाचार Samāchār · World · 25 October 2026

India hosts BRICS parliaments with a joint statement and terrorism on its list

The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum opens in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan on 26 October. Iran’s Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will not attend. A delegation from Tehran will.

India opens the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi on Monday. It runs on 26 and 27 October in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, the old Parliament building. The theme is Strengthening Parliaments for People-Centric Development. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced the forum on 22 October. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend and meet the visiting delegations.

The agenda is set. Four sessions cover institutional resilience, AI and digital innovation, cooperation on global governance and sustainability. Secretaries of the delegations met on Sunday to finalise a joint statement. Suggestions have come from 18 countries. Birla called the September BRICS joint declaration a major achievement and hopes for one here too. He wants a detailed discussion on terrorism. "Terrorism must end in every country," he said.

One chair will be filled by a delegation. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will not come. The Iranian Embassy in New Delhi cited unforeseen circumstances on 24 October. A parliamentary delegation will represent Tehran and hold talks with other members. The embassy said Iran remains committed to BRICS at the highest levels. West Asia is not on the formal agenda. It may surface on the sidelines.

For India the value is in the channel. Parliamentary diplomacy is quiet but durable. India has set up parliamentary friendship groups with 64 countries. Birla says visiting delegations have studied how India uses AI to translate proceedings into 22 languages and how most state assemblies have gone paperless. That is digital public infrastructure exported as practice. A consensus text from a bloc this diverse, with a clear line on terrorism, would be a विजय Vijay for the host.

What a founder takes from it: Governance tools travel. When other parliaments study India’s AI translation and paperless assemblies, Indian govtech gains a market and India gains a voice.