The 15th BRICS Summit will be chaired by South Africa in August. It will be held in Durban and the announcement was made by the Foreign Minister of Russia. The Foreign Ministers of Brazil, India, Russia, and China held their annual meetings on the margins of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It decided to extend its support to South Africa to hold the summit.
The 14th BRICS Summit was convened under the chairmanship of China virtually in June 2022. The theme adopted by China was the ‘Beijing Declaration’. India has an active participation in the summit and has even called for the strengthening of the BRICS identity and also providing an online database of all the documents related to the BRICS which helps in cooperation between all the countries.
BRICS Summit: Promoting Global Development and Cooperation
The name ‘BRICS’ refers to the grouping of the world’s emerging economies with a leading global value that are namely – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It was formalized in 2006 and held the first meeting with all the Foreign Ministers of BRICS. The word ‘BRICS’ was coined by Jim O’ Neil in 2001 who was a British economist.
The chairmanship of the BRICS summit is rotated annually among its members. India held the chairmanship in 2021. The main agenda of the summit is to promote peace and security among the member countries. It aims to have a positive impact on the world by ensuring development and cooperation globally.
BRICS aims to provide opportunities for intra-trade with the member countries despite the security tensions. It has a main goal of shielding its members from the economic fallout which will be inevitable with the Russia-Ukraine war. The member nations will collectively dominate global growth by 2050 with economies of a high global value.
The achievements of BRICS can be attributed to the establishment of the New Development Bank to mobilize resources for sustainable development projects. It also got significant changes in the International Monetary Fund which doubled the quota and 6% share transferred to the emerging countries. It led to the establishment of multilateral treaties and a wide range of communication. There was a significant increase in trade and exports.
There are a few challenges as well which are faced by the countries as all of them are emerging and developing. China asserts a dominant role that seeks a greater role and power in such a grouping. There is a lack of ideology within the countries which has to be adhered to in terms of the social-cultural-political system. There is still slow progress on multilateral reforms which requires a lot of commitment.
BRICS summit with such powerful countries aims to establish a more fair and equitable world. It is important to overcome diversity and find a common interest among the countries which helps in holistic development. To enhance the efficiency of cooperation it is necessary to have mechanisms like the New Development bank. It should also prioritize creating policies for tackling terrorism which is a global issue.
India’s participation in the non-western grouping helps in creating a balance with India’s growing partnership with the West.