BRICS countries have long-standing traditions of developing civil society - expert

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. BRICS countries have long-standing traditions of developing civil society, and Russian non-governmental organizations agree with them, Russian Civic Chamber member and co-chair of Civic BRICS Elena Topoleva-Soldunova told a press conference on Tuesday. The expert reminded that the first BRICS Civic Forum will take place at the end of June in the framework of Russia’s presidency in the association. The forum is aimed at establishing dialogue between the authorities and civil society of BRICS countries on major social, economic and political problems. The initiative group from Russia is now actively discussing issues which will be included in recommendations for BRICS leaders and presented at a summit in Ufa. "Talking about foreign participants, I want to say that we are very lucky with the countries that are part of BRICS," Topoleva-Soldunova said. "Brazil, India, South Africa are countries with long-standing traditions of developing civil society. They have active non-profit organizations with which we meet at different platforms. We find understanding and we have issues to discuss," she noted. "Preparations for Civic Forum started last October," co-chair of Civic BRICS Viktoria Panova said. "We formed seven groups on different directions. We want the agenda to be interesting and up-to-date. Our efforts will result in recommendations for BRICS leaders at the association’s summit in Ufa," Panova added. She expressed hope that Russia’s Civic BRICS’ experience "will be also taken into account by our partners in the association." Executive director of National Committee on BRICS Research Georgy Toloraya, who also serves as coordinator of the working group on peace and security at Civic BRICS, noted that security problems "have more and more influence on the civil society which has its own opinion and puts forward very interesting initiatives." "It seems like a certain consensus was reached in this sphere, but the work of groups showed that there are still many initiatives, ideas, and we welcome them" Toloraya said. BRICS is an association of five major emerging national economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Read more