PM Modi attends BRICS Summit in Russia: What is the group, its significance for India

What is BRICS?

List of Countries attending BRICS Summit: BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the original five members who were large, non-Western economies. On January 1 this year, BRICS admitted four new members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The organisation now represents almost half the world’s population and almost one quarter of the world’s economy.

Essentially, BRICS has been envisaged as a grouping of non-Western countries, which can act as a counterweight to institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, dominated by the Global North.

The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, ‘The World Needs Better Economic BRICs’. The paper projected that Brazil, Russia, India, and China would be among the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.

As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of the UNGA in New York in 2006.

The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. It was decided to include South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010, and accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya, China, in 2011.

The next wave of expansion came after the summit in South Africa last year. Invitations were extended to Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While four of the above joined in January this year, Saudi Arabia has accepted the invitation but delayed formal joining. Argentina, whose new President Javier Milei is more pro-West, declined.

What is the significance of BRICS Summit 2024?

PM Modi is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin again, after the two leaders met in July. As Russia faces increased pressure from the West, the meetings underline the importance New Delhi gives to traditionally strong India-Russia ties. For Putin, the gathering of so many world leaders in Russia is a message to the West that its attempts to isolate Moscow amid the Ukraine war have not succeeded.

Modi could possibly also meet Xi. While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not confirmed the meeting yet, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday said Modi is expected to have “a few bilaterals during his visit, which are presently being worked out”. The last Modi-Xi meeting had also come about on the sidelines of a BRICS Summit, in South Africa in August last year.

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, the major player in the other war raging at present — the devastating conflict in West Asia — will also attend the summit.

The BRICS membership is in line with India’s policy of multilateralism and seeking to give a stronger voice to the Global South.

“India values the close cooperation within BRICS which has emerged as an important platform for dialogue and discussion on issues concerning the global developmental agenda, reformed multilateralism, climate change, economic cooperation, building resilient supply chains, promoting cultural and people to people connect, among others. The expansion of BRICS with the addition of new members last year has added to its inclusivity and agenda for the global good,” PM Modi said in a statement ahead of his departure for Russia.

India will also seek to boost trade, security, economic and climate cooperation at the summit.

Many analysts believe that BRICS has so far not lived up to its potential, because of the internal differences amid members — the India-China border dispute, for example — and because not all members share Russia’s and China’s antipathy to the West.