External Affairs Minister S.
Jaishankar has said that choosing between groupings such as BRICS and the United Nations is “a false choice”, emphasising that smaller groups are supportive of the global organisation and would like to see it reformed.
The Minister was addressing a session titled ‘Ruptures & Ramparts: Building Bridges for a Changing World’ organised on the margins of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Reliance Foundation, UN in India and the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York on Thursday (September 24, 2026). “…I think it’s a false choice. The UN is the UN. It may have many shortcomings. It also has many achievements, and obviously, when you want to reform it, when you want to change it, it’s natural to focus on the shortcomings. But I don’t think that should lead us to be dismissive of the UN,” Mr. Participating in the session, moderated by ORF president Samir Saran, were Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith, Suriname Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and Cooperation Melvin Bouva, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and President and Chief Executive of the East-West Center Celeste Connors.
Jaishankar said.
Referring to the BRICS Leaders’ Summit that India hosted on September 12-13, the External Affairs Minister said: “One of the points in the BRICS is that the UN is central to the international system. Mr. “So it’s not BRICS or the UN. The BRICS is supportive of the UN, and a large part of the BRICS would like to reform the UN, some more than others,” Mr. “The other, in that sense, is the G7.. “Interest is a common-sense term.
Jaishankar said the UN has served the world in very significant ways. “At the end of the day, if there wasn’t a UN, we’d all be sitting here trying to invent one,” he said, adding that the BRICS or other groups as well, are “coming together” of countries who have a certain viewpoint, interest or outlook and are comfortable making that combination. Jaishankar said. But what brings them (BRICS) together is really the sense that there are strong non-Western viewpoints, contributions and beliefs which need to be taken into account, and the non-Western segment of the global debate is growing in weight, and that is why the BRICS is getting more significant,” the Minister said. But I do believe that the word trust, in a way, has — I don’t want to say replaced value — become a more dominant concept in diplomacy,” said Mr. Jaishankar, stressing that “values are often preached and not practised” but trust is earned.
