The 13th BRICS summit is scheduled to be held in digital format on 9 September under the chairmanship of India. The multilateral group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is chaired by rotation. India also held the chair in 2012 and 2016. The initial meeting of foreign ministers in June and talks at the BRICS Academic Forum in early August provided an important opportunity to present an objective assessment of the group’s record among the differing views of believers and skeptics. The importance of BRICS is self-evident: it represents 42% of the world’s population, 30% of the land area, 24% of global GDP and 16% of international trade.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar noted BRICS turning 15, recently portraying it as a young adult, equipped to “shape ideas and embody a worldview and with a growing sense of responsibility”. . Others see it as a way of being caught in the rage and confusion of the teen.
Nevertheless, member states are pushing the BRICS forward in an age of complex geopolitics. He bravely held dozens of meetings and summits, even as China’s aggression in eastern Ladakh last year brought India-China relations to their lowest level in several decades. There is also the reality of China and Russia’s strained relations with the West, and serious internal challenges in both Brazil and South Africa. On the other hand, a possible bond emerged due to the fight against COVID-19. Against this background, do BRICS really matter?
four priorities
Initiated by a meeting of foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006 and riding on the political synergy created by regular summits since 2009, BRIC transformed itself into BRICS with the entry of South Africa in 2010 . The grouping has gone through a reasonably productive journey. It attempted to serve as a bridge between the Global North and the Global South. It developed a common perspective on a wide range of global and regional issues; Established the New Development Bank; created a financial stability net in the form of a contingency reserve arrangement; and is on the verge of setting up a Vaccine Research and Development Virtual Center.
What are its immediate goals now? As the current President, India has outlined four priorities. The first is to advance the reform of multilateral institutions ranging from the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the World Trade Organization and now even the World Health Organization. This is not a new goal. BRICS has had little success so far, although strengthening multilateralism serves as a beacon as well as a strong bond. Reform requires a global consensus that is hardly possible in the current climate of strategic competition between the US and China and the devastation caused by COVID-19 to health, lives and livelihoods. Nevertheless, Indian officials rightly remind us that BRICS emerged in the early years of the century out of a desire to challenge dominance (by the US), and is now committed to the goal of counter-dominance (by China). Mr. Jaishankar observed that “the anti-dominance tendency and the principled commitment to multipolarity in all its forms” is inscribed in the DNA of BRICS.
The second is the resolve to combat terrorism. Terrorism is an international phenomenon affecting Europe, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. Tragic events related to Afghanistan have helped bring increasingly attention to this broad topic, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between rhetoric and action. For example, China appears to have little hesitation in supporting explicit condemnation of terrorist groups, even as its support for Pakistan, which is surrounded by several international terrorist groups, remains steadfast.
In this context, BRICS is trying to give a practical shape to its counter-terrorism strategy by formulating a BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan containing specific measures to combat radicalization, terrorist financing and misuse of the Internet by terrorist groups. This plan is expected to be a significant deliverable at the upcoming summit and is expected to bring about some change.
Promoting technological and digital solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals and expanding people-to-people cooperation are the other two BRICS priorities. Digital tools have helped a world badly hit by the pandemic, and India has been at the forefront of using new technological tools to improve governance. But the revival of international travel will have to wait for increased people-to-people cooperation. Interaction through digital means is a poor option.
Among other concerns, BRICS has been busy deepening trade and investment ties among its member countries. The difficulty stems from the centrality of China and the dominance of intra-BRICS trade flows. How to create a better internal balance remains a challenge, reinforced by the urgent need to diversify and strengthen regional value chains exposed during the pandemic. Policy makers have been encouraging increased intra-BRICS cooperation in areas as diverse as agriculture, disaster resilience, digital health, traditional medicine and customs cooperation.
takeaway
The idea of BRICS – a common pursuit of shared interests by five emerging economies from four continents – is fundamentally strong and relevant. Governments have invested huge political capital to advance the BRICS experiment, and its institutionalization has gained momentum.
The five-power alliance has been successful up to a point. But it now faces several challenges: China’s economic growth has created a serious imbalance within BRICS; Beijing’s aggressive policy, especially against India, puts BRICS solidarity under extraordinary strain; And the BRICS countries have not done enough to assist the Global South to achieve their optimum support for their agenda. It is necessary for the leaders, officials and academicians of this group to seriously self-discover and find a way out of the current situation.
A parting thought: BRICS negotiators need to master the art of conciseness and tight drafting. When they do, they will realize that unnecessarily long releases are an indicator of the group’s weakness, not a strength.
Rajeev Bhatia is Distinguished Fellow at Gateway House and former High Commissioner to South Africa
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