NEW DELHI: Amid continuing tensions in West Asia, Iran and the UAE are expected to join fellow Brics members at the bloc’s second Cultural Working Group meeting in Varanasi from June 4-5. The conference will dwell on the theme “building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability” with Artificial Intelligence and repatriation of cultural property among priority areas for discussion and consensus building.This Varanasi meeting is seen as crucial to pave the way for the minister level dialogue scheduled for August in Bhopal, with the ministry of culture hopeful that members will be able to arrive at a consensus and deliver a statement on the thematic areas. The upcoming working group meeting gains significance in the prevailing geopolitical context given that it comes in the backdrop of the West Asia crisis. The first BRICS Culture Working Group Meeting was held in virtual mode April 29-30. After the second meeting of the group in Varanasi, the third meeting of the CWG will take place in Bhopal from August 5-6, followed by a BRICS cultural festival on August 6-7 and the BRICS culture ministers’ meeting (CMM) on August 7 and 8, also in Bhopal, culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal highlighted at a press conference. He also shared the roadmap and the priority areas. The 2026 BRICS Culture Working Group deliberations are structured around three major thematic priorities: ‘creative economy, cultural and creative industries, copyright and artificial intelligence’, ‘cultural heritage protection and return of cultural property’ and ‘culture, climate and sustainable development’.“These priorities reflect a commitment to innovation, ensuring the ethical use of technology in cultural domains, preserving cultural diversity, advancing heritage conservation and restitution cooperation, and engaging with the global post-2030 sustainable development agenda,” the culture ministry said in a statement.India has consistently played an active role in advancing cultural cooperation within BRICS. The ministry of culture hosted BRICS meetings of ministers of culture under India’s presidencies in Goa in 2016 and New Delhi in 2021, and is yet again taking the lead in this strategic role in 2026.The BRICS Culture Working Group, which draws its mandate from the Agreement between the govts of the BRICS member states on cooperation in the field of culture signed in 2015, has over the years expanded cooperation across cultural heritage, creative industries, films, museums, archives, and digital cultural ecosystems.BRICS brings together Brasil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia as full members, with 10 partner countries joining in 2025. The grouping represents a platform for multilateral cooperation across political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people pillars, collectively advancing a more inclusive and equitable international order.