First youth BRICS, SCO forum gets underway in Ufa

The participants in the first youth forum of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) opening in Ufa on Sunday will discuss the results of the recent SCO and BRICS summits and develop a "roadmap" for joint projects.

The forum is attended by youth leaders aged between 20 and 35 from Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as guests from South Korea, spokesperson for the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Bashkortostan Liya Gubaidullina has told TASS.

"The plenary session of the forum will open in Ufa’s Congress Hall, where the summits of BRICS and SCO heads of states took place between July 8 and 10. Its participants will discuss the prospects and opportunities of youth cooperation in these countries. Simultaneously, a press center will open for reporters covering the forum," she said.

The youth leaders of the BRICS and SCO members will also consider "the formation of the common information space in the field of youth activities of the association’s member-countries," Gubaidullina noted.

The forum was organized by the Russian Union of Youth, the government of Bashkortostan, Russia’s Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) and Russia’s Civil Chamber.

BRICS, an informal association of five fast-developing countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - was founded in June 2006. Its first official summit was held in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg. Since then BRICS summits are held every year in the participating countries alternately. The latest summit was held on July 8 and July 9 in Ufa.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent regional international association, whose establishment was announced on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai. During the SCO summit in Ufa on July 9 and July 10 the beginning of the admission procedure for India and Pakistan was announced. The leaders of the SCO member-countries also decided to grant Belarus observer status, while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal became dialogue partners.