Of four corners

Even before External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee sits down with the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia and China on Friday, the hype has begun. Some have hailed the first formal political engagement between the so-called BRICs as the moment that marks a shift in the global balance of power away from the West. The idea of BRICs was invented by the American investment bankers Goldman Sachs a few years ago to highlight the growing economic weight of countries outside the traditional developed zone of the North Atlantic. The assessment then, fully justified by the trends since, was that the BRICs will overtake most of the members of the Group of Seven within two decades.

The quadrangular forum in Ekaterinburg will follow the now well-established annual triangular consultations between the foreign ministers of India, China and Russia. The strategic dialogue among them RIC has always been seen by its sponsor, Moscow, as part of its strategy to balance the United States and the West. By bringing Brazil in, Russia now hopes to widen RIC beyond its Eurasian ambit. India and China seem happy to play along. BRIC foreign ministers are united in their common aspiration to construct a multipolar world and elevate their individual standing in the international system. All of them would like to improve their leverage vis-agrave;-vis the US which has been basking, since the end of the Cold War, in a rare unipolar moment.

While the shared interests among the BRICs are evident, the differences among them are not insignificant. On political values, India and Brazil see themselves as liberal democracies. Russia and China, in contrast, are increasingly perceived as illiberal entities rooted in authoritarian capitalism. Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council. The efforts of India and Brazil, in cooperation with Germany and Japan, to join the UNSC ran into the brick wall of Chinese resistance. Russia is a member of the G-8 summits, while China, India and Brazil are not. It is no secret that the triangular mechanism of RIC has slowed down due to the open contradictions between the interests of India and China and the nuanced dissonance between Moscow and Beijing. Given India8217;s new importance in constructing any global order, Mukherjee has every reason to relish playing the geopolitical roulette in Russia. This will be fun so long as Mukherjee does not forget the difference between tactical positioning and the strategic direction of India8217;s foreign policy.