This week on Defence Mantra, we discuss the upcoming BRICS Summit. Nitin Gokhale will be in Russia to cover the summit, scheduled to be held from 22 to 24 October 2024.
To give a bit of a backgrounder, BRICS, a body built by a group of aspirational nations, started off (in 2009) as a body that looked at its core the economic interests of its founding constituent members Brazil, Russia, India and China with an aim of fostering economic growth. South Africa became a member a year later in 2010.
India’s Prime Minister Modi will soon be taking part in the 16th BRICS summit, but this time there will be the first time since 2010 that more members are added to the group, the new members being Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
BRICS has long discussed reducing dependence on the US dollar. De-dollarisation is expected to be a major issue at the summit, especially as Russia has been moved out of the international payment mechanisms that use the dollar.
Another issue that analysts are pondering over is: With Russia leading the summit amid geopolitical tensions, especially concerning Ukraine, how will Moscow’s agenda might influence discussions, particularly around security and political cooperation.
Defence Mantra also discussed the New Development bank. Despite its potential, the NDB has faced criticism for underperformance. How can BRICS strengthen this institution to better compete with the World Bank and IMF, and what impact could this have on global financial systems? Nitin answers this question too.
Combined, the BRICS members encompass about 30% of the world’s land surface and 45% of the global population. BRICS seems like a formidable bloc on paper. But rifts in the two biggest economies of the group i.e. India and China must be tackled.
As India and China are heading towards the fifth year of deployment on the LAC, the leaders of the two countries have not had a bilateral meet. The two leaders met briefly at the BRICS summit in South Africa last year and in Bali at the G20 summit in Bali. The BIG question is whether PM Modi and China’s Xi will meet separately in Kazan.
Tensions – both geopolitical and economic in nature – are hampering the potential of the group.But there is tremendous potential, according to Nitin Gokhale. In the next decade, BRICS could become more powerful, and even be an important part of a new world order.
Neelanjana Banerjee
