On May 17 2021, Assistant Foreign Minister Deng Li attended the BRICS Deputy Ministers on the MENA Video Conference. Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs of India Sanjay Bhattacharyya, South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Candith Mashego-Dlamini, Brazilian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Kenneth Félix Haczynski da Nóbrega, and Russian Foreign Minister's Special Envoy for Middle East Settlement Vladimir Safronkov attended the meeting. The participants exchanged in-depth views and reached extensive consensus on the Middle East peace process, as well as the situation in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, the East Mediterranean, the Gulf region and Yemen.