BRICS is an informal group of states comprising the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa with many new members joining.

On 20 September 2006, the first BRICS Ministerial Meeting was held at the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the margins of a UN General Assembly Session in New York. Foreign ministers of Russia, Brazil and China and the Indian Defence Minister took part in the meeting. They expressed their interest in expanding multilateral cooperation.

The system of cooperation formats between BRICS countries includes annual scheduled summits (2010 – Brazil; 2011 – China; 2012 – India; 2013 – South Africa; 2014 – Brazil; 2015 - Russia; 2016 - India), leaders’ meetings on the sidelines of G20 summits, meetings between high representatives responsible for national security, foreign ministers (on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly), ministers of finance and governors of central banks (on the sidelines of autumn and spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank boards of governors and also on the sidelines of meetings of G20 ministers of finance), ministers of agriculture and agrarian development, BRICS sherpas and sous-sherpas, heads of statistical and anti-monopoly departments, senior officials for science and technological and innovation cooperation, meetings of working cooperation groups for agriculture and agrarian development, healthcare, information security, science and innovation, meetings of chairpersons of supreme (high) courts, heads of central election commissions, and representatives of municipal administrations and partner regions.

BRICS is successfully expanding its external relations that were established at the Durban meeting between the five BRICS leaders, the leaders of the African Union and the leaders of eight leading African integration associations. On 16 July 2014, Brasilia hosted the second meeting in this format involving South American heads of state and government. This practice makes it possible to find important points of contact between BRICS and new leading centres of power that are emerging worldwide.

The 6th BRICS Summit (Fortaleza and Brasilia, 15-16 July 2014) produced a highly important result. The sides signed the Agreement on the New Development Bank and the Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement. These institutions will possess a total of $200 billion.

The Leaders also adopted a key decision on launching comprehensive talks regarding the BRICS Strategy for Economic Partnership and a draft BRICS Roadmap for BRICS Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation.

The sides also coordinated subsequent joint steps in topical areas of cooperation such as the resolution of conflicts, IMF reform, the fight against illicit drug trafficking, the use and development of information and communications technologies on the basis of international cooperation and generally recognised principles and norms of international law and the creation of favourable conditions for barrier-free trade.

During the VII Summit (Ufa, 8-9 July 2015) BRICS leaders signed Ufa Declaration, Ufa Plan of Actions and Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership that confirmed the strategic character of BRICS countries partnership and determined the directions of five countries long-term cooperation. Within the framework of the summit a Memorandum of Understanding to establish BRICS joint website board and the Agreement between the BRICS Governments of cultural cooperation were signed.

BRICS leaders reached an agreement to open a number of new spheres of cooperation, initiated by the Russian Presidency – in the field of youth, migration, industry, energy, peacekeeping, environment, fight against infectious diseases etc. The Russian side also presented a Roadmap for trade-economic and investment cooperation between the BRICS countries up to 2020 year, which currently includes more than 60 proposals of cooperation from Russian companies.In 2016, India became the head of the Association. The culmination of its presidency was the eighth summit of BRICS, which was held in the Indian state of Goa on 15-16 October. Its motto was "The Formation of popular, inclusive and collective decisions". The leaders of five countries signed the Declaration of Goa, which expressed a coherent position on issues related to the development of the Association and critical issues.

At the summit in Goa were discussed the issues of energy, trade, banking cooperation, agriculture, space utilization and other common spaces, health, education, development of humanitarian contacts and tourism, the fight against poverty and social inequality. In addition to the Declaration was signed a number of sectoral agreements.