WHO Director-General's remarks at the BRICS Summit – 13 September 2026

Your Excellency Prime Minister Modi,

Excellencies,

Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, for your leadership and for inviting me to address you.

I welcome the leaders' declaration and your strong support for global health and WHO. The four themes India selected for this Summit are directly relevant to health, and progress on health will advance each of them.

First, resilience.

Resilient health systems start with primary health care reaching everyone, especially remote and vulnerable communities. I welcome your focus on surveillance, early warning and rapid response, which the new BRICS sub-working group and Network of National Public Health Institutes can turn into coordinated action. Your commitment to local production matters too: no country should wait for vaccines or treatments because supply chains break or purchasing power is unequal.

Second, innovation.

BRICS countries have enormous scientific and manufacturing capacity; the challenge is directing it towards public health needs and making benefits affordable and accessible. I welcome your focus on digital health and AI, and your commitment to tuberculosis research, vaccines and regulatory cooperation. The same applies to traditional medicine, where WHO supports evidence-informed research and use of traditional knowledge.

Third, cooperation.

The Chandigarh Declaration recognises that many diseases are driven by the conditions in which people live, so solutions must extend beyond health ministries. I welcome the Operational Framework on social determinants of health, your plan to bring this agenda to WHO's governing bodies, and the BRICS Mission for Healthy Lifestyle, covering diets, activity, detection and mental wellness. Cooperation is also essential for pandemic preparedness: I welcome your support for completing the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement. Negotiations resume tomorrow, and I ask every BRICS country to help secure a safe, effective PABS system.

Fourth, sustainability.

This past year, many countries and the global health ecosystem have been disrupted by cuts to health financing, though this crisis is also an opportunity to build sustainable funding models. Sustainability also requires a coherent global health architecture; Member States have entrusted WHO with leading a country-led reform, now underway, which BRICS can help shape while amplifying emerging economies.

I leave you with four requests:

1. Build resilience before the next emergency arrives;
2. Direct innovation towards the project and places markets miss;
3. Make cooperation operational across borders and sectors;
4. Sustain what you have built through political commitment, implementation and accountability.

If BRICS delivers on these declarations, it will improve health across its members and strengthen global health.

I thank you.