"Amid the West’s actions our countries should actively seek universal joint responses to challenges," Sergei Lavrov said, TASS reported.
He noted that this is about such challenges as "attempts to undermine the foundations of collective, equal and indivisible security, regional conflicts, international terrorism and transnational crime."
"I am confident that under current conditions the role of BRICS in facilitating the resolution of global issues should only grow, especially since our alliance remains an example of genuine multilaterality," Lavrov said.
In order to "put an emphasis on multipolarity", he spoke Russian at the meeting as opposed to other participants who used English. In turn, China’s representative who spoke after the Russian diplomat, also chose to use his native language.
Foreign ministers from the Brics countries are meeting in SA from Thursday as the five-nation( (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc seeks to forge itself into a counterweight to Western geopolitical dominance.
The talks are a prelude to an August summit in Johannesburg, media have reported.
Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are on a list of those who have either formally applied to join or expressed interest.
SKH/PR