Culture
BRICS countries have some of the most deep rooted civilisational and cultural traditions in the world. Aware of the ability that culture holds in facilitating people to people cooperation in a multilateral world, BRICS established a Ministerial mechanism on cultural cooperation in 2015.
Since then, five meetings at the Ministerial level have been held so far. In addition, over the period, senior official level meetings and people to people engagements like BRICS Theatre Festival, Music Festival, Exhibition, BRICS Cultural Festival etc have also been organised.
The first meeting of BRICS Culture Ministers was held in Moscow in 2015. The same year, an Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Culture among the BRICS countries was signed at Ufa Summit in July 2015. This Agreement aims to play an important role in expanding and deepening cooperation in the fields of culture and arts, in promoting dialogue between cultures, to help bring closer the cultures and peoples of BRICS countries.
During the second Culture Ministers’ Meeting in 2017 at Tianjin, China, the Action Plan for the implementation of the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Culture (2017-21) and four Letters of Intent (BRICS alliance of Art Museum and Galleries; Libraries cooperation; Museums and Theatre for Children and Young) were signed. Also, the BRICS library alliance was established.
During the fourth BRICS Cultural Ministers’ Meeting in October 2019 at Curitiba, Brazil, BRICS countries signed a Letter of Intent on Creative Economy.
Recently, at the fifth Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Culture 2020, Russia, the countries agreed to establish a BRICS Working Group on Culture which will annually exchange information about multilateral cultural cooperation and update each other on the upcoming large-scale events to be held in their countries.
