Asserting that Beijing stands with New Delhi amid the COVID-19 crisis, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi today said all BRICS member countries, including China, will provide support and assistance to India as it fights the second wave of the pandemic.

“I once again expressed my sympathy to India amid a new wave of the pandemic. In this trying time, China stands with India and all BRICS countries. As long as it is needed by India, all BRICS partners, including China, will provide further support and assistance at any time. And we are confident that India will certainly overcome the pandemic,” said Wang Yi at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting.

BRICS is the grouping of the world’s emerging market economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS mechanism aims to promote peace, security, development and cooperation.

The meeting was chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar through video conferencing.

Besides Wang Yi, the meeting was attended by Brazil Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and South African Foreign Minister Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor.

In his opening remarks, Mr Jaishankar said, “India has assumed the chairship of BRICS on its 15th anniversary. We have come a long way from the first time our foreign ministers met in New York in 2006. The principles that guide our grouping remain consistent over the years.

India recorded a single-day rise of 1,27,510 new COVID-19 cases today, the lowest in 51 days, taking the country’s infection tally to 2,81,75,044, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The country’s active caseload is below 20 lakhs after 43 days. The active caseload further declined to 18,95,520 as active cases decreased by 1,30,572 in the last 24 hours