The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum opened in New Delhi on Monday, bringing together parliamentary leaders and delegations from BRICS member and partner countries for two days of discussions centred on people-centric development and global peace. Hosted by the Parliament of India in the Parliament House Complex, the forum runs on October 26 and 27, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the inaugural programme and interacting with the leaders of the visiting delegations.
The forum is being held under India's chairship, and its overarching theme is "Strengthening Parliaments for People-Centric Development". That theme, set out by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla ahead of the event, frames the discussions around a simple idea: that parliaments, as the institutions closest to citizens, have a central role in ensuring that development serves people, not just economies, and that international cooperation reflects the concerns of ordinary citizens.
Presiding officers and parliamentary delegations from the BRICS grouping's 11 member countries and 10 partner countries are taking part, according to the Press Information Bureau. They are joined by Union Ministers, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh, presiding officers of state legislatures, Members of Parliament and other dignitaries.
The conference is being held in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, the historic building that has hosted some of the most important moments in India's parliamentary history.
Four high-level sessions structure the two days. The first, on resilience, examines the critical role of parliaments in strengthening institutions to ensure a better future. The second, on innovation, looks at promoting human-centred innovation in artificial intelligence and digital technologies through parliaments.
The third, on cooperation, considers how parliamentary cooperation can ensure a more representative system of global governance. The fourth, on sustainability, addresses the role of parliaments in ensuring a sustainable and inclusive future for their countries.
Alongside the main sessions, the forum includes a separate meeting of the chairs of international affairs committees from BRICS member and partner parliaments, focused on parliamentary diplomacy, capacity building and the exchange of best practices.
There are also bilateral and multilateral interactions between visiting leaders, meetings of parliamentary friendship groups with different countries, and a meeting of the secretaries of the delegations, held on October 25, to finalise the Joint Statement of the forum.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla set the tone for the event at a press conference at Parliament House on October 22, describing the forum as a new chapter in the history of India's parliamentary diplomacy. He said most countries had confirmed their attendance, although some would be unable to send representatives because of local elections.
He also said the forum would provide a platform for bilateral and multilateral talks, allowing participating countries to exchange views on their parliamentary priorities and explore areas of cooperation.
Ahead of the forum, Birla held a series of bilateral meetings with visiting leaders, including Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of Russia's State Duma. In their meeting, the two sides discussed ways to strengthen parliamentary cooperation between India and Russia through regular exchanges among lawmakers and greater engagement at multilateral forums, including BRICS.
The discussions covered cooperation in international forums, joint efforts to combat terrorism and the need for a coordinated global response to the threat. Birla welcomed Russia's continued support for India's fight against terrorism, reiterated India's demand for reforms to the United Nations Security Council, and thanked Russia for supporting India's bid for permanent membership of the Council.
Both sides also explored opportunities to deepen cooperation in nuclear energy, industry, trade and agriculture, and emphasised cultural exchanges and people-to-people ties. India and Russia are scheduled to mark 80 years of diplomatic relations in 2027.
The forum follows the BRICS Summit held in September 2026 under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, in which all member countries participated and important announcements were made, according to the Press Information Bureau. The parliamentary forum is intended to carry that momentum into the legislative sphere, translating summit-level understandings into parliamentary dialogue, shared practices and, potentially, coordinated positions in international forums.
The idea of a parliamentary forum within BRICS reflects a broader shift in international diplomacy. Traditionally, summits and ministerial meetings have been the main vehicles for cooperation between governments. Parliamentary forums add a different dimension: they bring together the elected representatives who must legislate, scrutinise budgets, ratify agreements and hold governments to account.
When parliaments from different countries talk to each other, they can compare how laws are made, how new technologies are regulated, how climate commitments are monitored and how citizens' concerns are heard. That exchange, while less headline-grabbing than a summit, can shape the domestic laws that give effect to international promises.
The four themes chosen for this forum illustrate that point. Resilience is about institutions: how parliaments can remain strong, trusted and effective in times of political, economic or technological disruption. Innovation is about technology: how lawmakers can ensure that artificial intelligence and digital tools serve people, protect rights and do not widen inequalities.
Cooperation is about global governance: how the world's institutions, from the United Nations to the international financial system, can become more representative of the countries and peoples they serve. Sustainability is about the future: how parliaments can ensure that development today does not compromise the environment, livelihoods and opportunities of future generations.
For India, hosting the forum is also an opportunity to showcase its parliamentary traditions and its current priorities. As the world's largest democracy, with a Parliament that represents more than 1.4 billion people, India has a particular interest in the argument that development must be people-centric.
That phrase, which runs through the forum's theme, points to a view of progress measured not only in growth rates or trade volumes, but in jobs, education, health, digital access and the everyday experience of citizens.
It is a view that resonates across the Global South, where many BRICS members and partners are grappling with similar challenges: how to grow economies while protecting livelihoods, how to adopt new technologies while safeguarding jobs and privacy, and how to reform global institutions that many feel do not reflect today's world.
The participation of partner countries, alongside full members, is another notable feature of this year's forum. BRICS has expanded in recent years, and the partner-country category allows a wider circle of states to engage with the grouping without full membership.
For parliaments, that wider circle means a broader exchange of experience, from countries at different stages of development and with different parliamentary systems, all facing the common task of translating global challenges into national law.
As the forum proceeds into its second day, attention will turn to its outcomes. Parliamentary forums do not typically produce binding agreements in the way that government summits do. Their value lies in joint statements, in shared understandings, in the relationships built between presiding officers and committee chairs, and in the ideas that participants take back to their own parliaments.
The Joint Statement finalised by delegation secretaries ahead of the forum will be a key indicator of where consensus was reached, and of which issues, from AI governance to UN reform to sustainable development, drew the strongest common language.
For the visiting delegations, the experience of meeting in New Delhi, in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, carries its own symbolism. The building is associated with the framing of India's Constitution and with the early years of the republic, and it serves as a reminder that parliamentary institutions, however different their forms, share a common purpose: to give citizens a voice in the decisions that shape their lives.
That purpose is, in the end, what the forum's theme is about, and it is why a gathering of parliamentarians, away from the glare of a leaders' summit, can matter for the direction of international cooperation.
(Reporting based on News On AIR and the Press Information Bureau.)