12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum Under India's Chairship

The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum has been placed at the centre of attention by an article from the Lok Sabha Speaker, Shri Om Birla, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared on 26 October 2026. The Speaker writes on the part the Forum plays in strengthening parliamentary dialogue and cooperation among the grouping's member and partner countries, and sets out what its sittings will take up.

The four subjects before the Forum

The Forum will discuss institutional resilience, AI governance, South-South cooperation and sustainability. Institutional resilience concerns the capacity of public institutions to hold up under stress. AI governance is the business of framing rules for artificial intelligence. South-South cooperation is the exchange of knowledge, trade and technical help between developing countries, without a developed country in the middle. Sustainability binds the economic and environmental sides of the same agenda.

Guided by India's Chairship

These four subjects are guided by the four pillars of India's 2026 BRICS Chairship. A chairship moves between the grouping's members, and the country holding it shapes the year's calendar and themes. For an aspirant the pairing to hold is simple: in 2026 the Chairship is India's, and the parliamentary wing of the grouping meets for its twelfth edition in that year.

Why a parliamentary forum

Summits bring heads of government together, but a parliamentary forum brings together the legislatures. Speakers and presiding officers meet, compare how their houses legislate, and carry the grouping's priorities into national parliaments, which are the bodies that pass laws and clear budgets. That is what the Speaker means by strengthening parliamentary dialogue and cooperation: the exchange runs between institutions, not only between governments, and it widens to partner countries as well as full members.

Facts at a glance

The edition number, the four subjects and the year of the Indian Chairship are the three facts a question is most likely to turn on, so they are worth learning together rather than one at a time.