The 7th BRICS
summit held on 8-9 July 2015 summit of the head of states or government
of the BRICS member states. It was held in the Russian city of Ufa in
Bashkortostan.
The BRICS
summit in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan,
brought together the heads of government of Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa (BRICS) in what's already one of the world's most
unusually interesting international groupings. Jokingly dismissed by
some as the only world body invented by a merchant bank (BRICS was born
in an emerging market analysis by Goldman Sachs' chief economist Jim
O'Neill more than a decade ago), the five countries are taken
increasingly seriously as a significant force in global affairs.
An Overview of 7th BRICS Summit in Ufa | Group Discussion Articles |
For one thing,
they're too big to be ignored. It's not just BRICS' populations, which
collectively account for nearly half of the human race. It's also their
economies, which now add up in output to about the same as that of the
U.S. and are well on course to overtake the entire G-7 before 2050. With
that kind of clout, the BRICS countries have started to discuss new
endeavors and common positions on international issues. BRICS is slowly
emerging as an alternative forum to the dominant worldview of the
established economies.
An Overview of 7th BRICS Summit in Ufa | Group Discussion Articles |
The key player,
of course, is China, whose economic output is almost twice as large as
the other four members put together, and whose role will be determinant
in BRICS' global effectiveness. After decades of an almost isolationist
approach to world politics, China has begun stretching its sinews on the
world stage. Its economic interests span the globe, and Beijing seems
to see merit in complementing these with an expanding array of
partnerships with other countries. Some of these are unilaterally led,
like its revival of the ancient land and maritime Silk Routes as a
platform for Chinese trade and investment. But Beijing is also showing
increasing interest in multilateral engagements with like-minded
nations, partially to compensate for not having the role it believes it
deserves in existing institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. This
is where BRICS comes in.
Or does it? The
summit suggested a certain level of ambivalence on China's part.
Whereas the other BRICS countries saw the summit as the highlight of
their presence in Ufa, China seemed to treat it as something of a
sideshow to the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
of which it is the principal animating spirit.
An Overview of 7th BRICS Summit in Ufa | Group Discussion Articles |
It's already
apparent that the five do not see all international issues in the same
perspective. China and Russia are suspicious of liberal ideas, wary of
information technology and decidedly unsympathetic to democratic
dissent; India, Brazil and South Africa are lively democracies. It is
unlikely, for example, that the five would see eye to eye on issues of
Internet governance. China and Russia wish to legitimize greater
government control over the Internet; India is an energetic advocate of
"multi-stakeholderism."
On issues of
development, Russia is the odd man out; China has largely eliminated
mass poverty, while the other three still struggle with existential
questions of survival for a significant proportion of their populations.
Can they truly adopt a common view on global macro-economics,
development aid and international resource transfers?
BRICS has
established a New Development Bank, headquartered in Shanghai and headed
by one of India's most eminent private-sector bankers. But China's
major priority remains the 57-member Asian Infrastructure and Investment
Bank, of which India and Russia are the second and third largest
stakeholders respectively (and to which Brazil and South Africa also
belong). Since China will be the principal contributor to both
institutions, is there any doubt as to which it will do more to
bankroll?
Trade divides
the group; a recent research report by the think tank Global Trade Alert
points to the negative impact of the trade policies of individual BRICS
members on each other. Commercial ties between them are still
characterized by a lack of harmony and discriminatory trade distortions.
Global
geopolitics, too, divides the BRICS countries. India hoped the summit
would endorse its concerns about terrorism but China, mindful of its
close links with Pakistan, the source of the terrorism that has targeted
India, refused to play along. The summit declaration made no reference
to U.N. Security Council resolution 1267, which India had hoped to use
to bring pressure on its neighbor.
On the other
hand, Russia persuaded the others to sign up to language "condemn[ing]
unilateral military interventions and economic sanctions in violation of
international law and universally recognized norms of international
relations," an oblique endorsement of Moscow's position on international
sanctions over Ukraine.
7th BRICS Summit VII саммит БРИКС | |
---|---|
Host country | Russia |
Date | 8–9 July 2015 |
Cities | Ufa, Bashkortostan |
Participants | BRICS |
Follows | 6th BRICS summit |
Precedes | 8th BRICS summit |
Website | en |
These issues
suggest that BRICS is still finding its collective feet and that some
differences of nuance and even of perspective are still inevitable.
Beijing realizes that China's weight is what gives ballast to BRICS, and
the five are unlikely to be able to take a joint position on any issue
unless China wants it -- or at a minimum, is willing to go along.
This will pose
interesting challenges to the five on a range of global issues. To take a
relatively minor example: As a state that has been aggressive in
hacking into foreign websites, China has a position on cybersecurity
that opposes that of Brazil, which protested bitterly at American
snooping on its government and cancelled a presidential visit to
Washington in protest. India, which could make a major contribution to
the stewardship of the global commons with its expertise on issues
ranging from cyberspace to outer space and which has its own suspicions
of China, could well find itself out of step with BRICS' largest member.
For now, the
summit suggests the grouping has only begun moving in little steps.
Aside from a Economic Cooperation Strategy proposed by Russia, the only
concrete action plan came from India, which offered a "ten steps"
program that is underwhelming in its lack of ambition -- a trade fair, a
railway research center, audit cooperation, an agricultural research
center, a sports council, a soccer tournament, a film festival and so
on: hardly earth-shaking initiatives. These could either contribute to
an environment of collective camaraderie on which bigger things could be
built, or dribble into insignificance.
For now, BRICS
remains an institution with great potential surrounded by considerable
uncertainty. Its future impact on the world will in large part, however,
be determined by those who weren't at the Bashkortostan capital -- the
Western countries who dominate the existing post-1945 international
system. To the extent that they raise the ramparts and resist the claims
of the BRICS members to places of honor on the world stage, the greater
will be the incentive for the BRICS countries to consolidate their own
alternative system and view of the world.
It doesn't have
to be that way. BRICS should ideally find their place within the
framework of global structures that ensure all countries a fair deal in
keeping with their size, capabilities and contributions to the
international system.
Bricks can be
used to build an equitable world order, or be thrown to shatter the
glass towers of the existing system. The same can be said of BRICS.
An Overview of 7th BRICS Summit in Ufa | Group Discussion Articles
Reviewed by Newstechcafe
on
July 23, 2015
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