Balancing on BRICS

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated28/06/2022

Most remarkable thing about the BRICS summit last week was that its five members managed to negotiate their way through the meeting in a way that sent no ripples of surprise through the post-February 24 world.

This was the 14th summit of Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa grouping set up in 2009.
It was hosted by China and was its opportunity to showcase multilateralism, Beijing’s big foreign policy slogan, and to hit out once again at US “hegemony”.
Apart from members, China invited 13 nations from across continents, signalling its desire to expand the group.
India: BRICS was always about its commitment to building non-western alliances, but this time it was more an international balancing act.
Brazil: voted for UNSC resolution “deploring” invasion of Ukraine and General Assembly resolution condemning Russia, but its President insisted his country stands for “peace”.
South Africa: neutral stand on Ukraine.
Russia: Summit gave Putin his first multilateral outing since the attack.
Joint statement was able to find common ground on invasion of Ukraine by asserting sanctity of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the need to find a peaceful solution.

Russia’s proposal for alternative reserve currency was received with caution.
Western sanctions on Russia have had a fall-out on economies around the world, but post-dollar world is an idea whose time has not yet arrived.
Barring Russia now, other BRICS members are well-integrated members of US currency-led, digitised global financial market.
A BRICS Think Tank Network for Finance is to be set up.
Aim: to work independently and provide intellectual support, as and when tasked, for knowledge sharing, exchange of experiences and practices and cooperation on finance issues amongst BRICS countries, aiming at addressing global challenges and serving the interests of the EMDCs (Emerging Markets and Developing Countries).

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BRICS has yet to live up to its promise of an economic or trading bloc that can offer alternatives to developing countries.
The New Development Bank is yet to catch speed as multilateral lender of standing.
China’s push to dominate BRICS, and Russia’s being in economic limbo, have set limits on what the grouping can hope to achieve.