Why in news?
- Ninth BRICS summit is going to be held in Xiamen, China.
- China has invited Egypt, Kenya, Tajikistan, Mexico and Thailand as guest countries for the summit.
What is BRICS?
- BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- BRICS countries represents 40% of the world population and account for 22% of global GDP.
- Since 2009, the BRICS nations have met annually at formal summits.
What are the problems faced by the BRICS countries?
- Bilateral relations among BRICS nations have mainly been conducted on the basis of non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.
- The future of this partnership has lately come under serious interrogation due to various internal and external problems experienced by them.
- Brazil and South Africa have experienced prolonged internal instability.
- Russia has had to face continuous distractions from Georgia, Ukraine and Syria to the current US sanctions.
- Also, the recent China-India military standoff at Doklam became formidable stumbling block.
- Hence, the theme of the current Summit “Stronger Partnership for Brighter Future” is very apt to the present situation for the group.
What is its agenda?
- Originally, BRICS was envisioned to usher in reforms in the global financial governance.
- At a broader level, it was to pursue democratisation of international relations and provide developing nations a greater say in global governance.
- Of late, BRICS has drastically expanded its scope & become more of a political forum, thereby diluting its founding principles.
- The expanded agenda now includes several non-financial issues from climate change and terror to women empowerment, human trafficking and so on.
- While these issues are indeed pressing, experts allude that expansion of agenda takes a toll on efficacy.
What is the best path for BRICS?
- Experts feel that focus should be on consolidation of the agenda and not expansion.
- Creating a dedicated organisational structure with its own cadre of BRICS personnels should be prioritized.
- To nourish cohesion and momentum, the organisation should be a mission oriented framework rather than being a vague conglomerate.
- People to people contacts & co-operation in other fields shouldn’t dilute the core issues at hand.
Source: The New Indian Express
