Russian Minister for Digital Development Maksut Shadaev announced on September 27, 2024, that BRICS countries will cooperate in the development of quantum technologies. According to TASS, Shadaev told reporters that the bloc’s members had agreed to interact on quantum technology development. He also stated that Russia and China plan to work jointly on the development and education of language models.
The announcement came ahead of the 16th BRICS Summit scheduled for October 2024 in Kazan, Russia, where the Russian presidency was preparing to introduce new cooperation themes. Among these, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies were identified as a new thematic area for the BRICS STI architecture, according to the BRICS 2025 STI Issues Note published by the Brazilian presidency.