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The World
New Delhi, 25 August 2023
BRICS Summit
DEEPENING OR WIDENING!
By Dr. D.K. Giri
(Secretary General, Assn for Democratic Socialism)
The BRICS countries in their 15thSummit at
Johannesburg from 22 to 24 August are debating the expansion of the five-member
bloc. Picking up the unfinished agenda from the last Summit, they would be
seriously debating the mechanism for extending the membership to some of the 18
countries aspiring to join. This should remind as of the intense debate during
1990s within the European Union by far the most successful integrated bloc of
27 countries. The debate was about deepening the Union versus widening it. The
same challenge faces BRICS although the origin of this bloc is significantly
different from the EU as it is more a shared platform than a cohesive bloc. The
lack of cohesion in BRICS is a challenge and a subject of doubt and criticism
by the integration experts.
It will be in order to briefly recall the origin a
nature of BRICS before we discuss the possibility and viability of its
expansion. The acronym BRIC appeared for the first time in 2001 in one of the
publications of the bank, Goldman Sachs. The paper prepared by the bank
economists Jim O’Neill was to capture the future of growing economies of
Brazil, Russia, India and China whose initials constitute the name BRIC. South
Africa was added later in 2010 to make it BRICS. The group was conceived by the
bank as the investment destination. In fact, Goldman started a BRICS-focussed
investment fund in 2006. BRICS held its first conference in 2005 in Russia.
However, Goldman folded the investment fund nine years
later in 2015. That act was seen as the BRICS era coming to an end. As a matter
of fact, the big emerging markets were sputtering; Russia and Brazil had fallen
into recession while Chinese economy was on the decline. Now, although the
BRICS share of the world economy has increased from eight per cent in 2005 to
26 per cent, the situation for some member countries has become worse. Brazil
and Russia registered growth of one per cent for a decade, the latter hit by
multiple sanctions. South Africa is caught in the mire of corruption and
mismanagement. China is increasingly facing isolation by the big economies. It
is India only that is showing signs of vibrations in its economy and politics.
Politically, BRICS countries are the least cohesive.
While India, Brazil, South Africa are democracies, China and Russia are autocratic
regimes. While Chinese economy is facing disinvestment by western countries,
its politics is perceived as a systemic threat. This is more so after Xi
Jinping revealed his intent of challenging American-western dominance. China is
also having a protracted border dispute with India which escalated in 2020
causing bloodshed on both sides. Chinese aggressive actions vis-à-vis its
neighbours have drawn the attention of the world. Russia is fighting a pariah
status after its ill-thought-out war on Ukraine. While Russia is leaning more
and more on China to counter American pressure on Moscow, India and China
hardly agree on any issue in world politics.
That said, the BRICS countries perhaps share a common
strategic perception of a multilateral world less dominated by a single super
power. To be sure, member countries of BRICS are in the group for variety of
respective reasons. The new countries wanting to join have similar interests.
For instance, one aspirant, Iran would like to be a part of BRICS to counter
American influence on the country. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, long
allies of United States would like to expand their trade and commercial relations
with China.
However, they will be wary of a strong anti-American
bloc emerging at the behest of Beijing. Likewise, India and Brazil will also be
sensitive to a rabidly anti-American platform nurtured by China and Russia. That
is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged that the expansion should happen only
by consensus. Some countries may be admitted in this Summit.
In particular, Prime Minister Modi proposed five points
for further cooperation between BRICS countries as they seek to expand. The
first area of cooperation suggested by him was in space. He said, “We are
already working on the BRICS satellite constellation. We can consider creating
a BRICS Space Exploration Consortium which will work for global good in areas
like space research, weather monitoring, etc”. This suggestion is perhaps timely to have
traction in the Summit as Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed in the Moon creating a sort
of history.
The second area suggested by Modi consists of
cooperation in education and skill development. He said, “In India, we have
created DIKSHA – Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing to provide
education to the children of remote and rural areas”. He highlighted the
innovation labs in schools using AI platforms like Bhasini to overcome language
barriers. He assured the BRICS partners that India will share all these
platforms. The third suggestion was to undertake skill-mapping in each country
to identify their respective strength for synergy and cooperation.
The fourth suggestion interestingly was about big cats.
Modi suggested cooperation within international big cat alliance for the
protection of these species. A large number of big cats of several species are
found in all the five BRICS countries. The fifth suggestion related to the
field of traditional medicine which is essential for creating better health
conditions and treatment of several diseases.
BRICS summit is attended by all the top leaders –
Indian Prime Minister Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who is
standing in for President Vladimir Putin. The Russian President has an international
arrest warrant issued by International Criminal Court (ICC) over his alleged
war crimes in Ukraine. South Africa as a member of ICC would have been obliged
to arrest Putin if he were to attend the conference. In addition, the countries
of African Union in the name of representing the voice of ‘Global South’ are
attending the conference.
Despite the lack of cohesion, BRICS will continue in some
form or the other. It provides a platform for members to criticise, often with
justification, the functioning of the world institutions under the influence of
the West sidelining the Global South. In Cape Town, Indian Foreign Minister
Jaishankar talked about the concentration of global economic power leaving too
many nations at the mercy of a few. BRICS is projected to be a counterweight to
G-7. The SCO is too Eurasian. The G-20 is too dominated by the western members.
BRICS seems to be the best party in the town. BRICS has some institutional
growth, like the New Development Bank.
To sum up, how effective the BRICS will be is a big
question mark. If it sticks to trade, commerce and investment, it may stay
effective as a Forum. If it veers towards a political road under the dual
leadership of Russia and China, it will prove to be a motley group without much
impact. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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