14th BRICS Summit

In News

• Recently the 14th BRICS Summit which was held virtually came up with the Beijing Declaration.

Major Highlights of the meet:

• Beijing Declaration:
  • It states that BRICS supports talks between Russia and Ukraine. 
  • The grouping is willing to support the United Nations’ and ICRC’s (The International Committee of the Red Cross) efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
  • Countries also expressed concerns about the situation in Taliban-held Afghanistan.
• Russia’s Response :
  • Russia made a veiled attack on the US and European countries for using financial mechanisms and to “shift their own mistakes” in economic policies to the rest of the world. 
• China’s position:
  • Chinese President called on members to reject the “Cold war mentality” and oppose what he called the US and EU’s “unilateral sanctions”.
  • The Chinese president also called for a larger security alliance within BRICS, underlining that Beijing would like to work with the grouping to operationalise the Global Security Initiative (GSI).
    • Proposed by China in May this year, the GSI aims to be an Asian security framework that replaces “confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach with dialogue, partnership and win-win results”.
• On terrorism: 
  • BRICS countries reiterated that only the UN Security Council has the authority for imposing sanctions.
• On Afghanistan:
  • BRICS countries called for Afghanistan authorities to achieve national reconciliation through dialogue and negotiation.
  • And advised to establish a broad-based and inclusive and representative political structure. 
  • It also added that Afghan territory must not be used to shelter terrorists or attack any other country. 
• India’s stand:
  • The Indian PM focussed on the importance of BRICS in the post-pandemic global economic recovery. 

• Target of G7:
  • The summit comes just days ahead of the G-7 summit in Germany, which PM Modi and South African President Ramaphosa will also attend, where western countries are expected to deliberate on tighter sanctions against Russia.

Future prospects 

• Afghan issue:
  • There is a need to contribute to fostering an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order in Afghanistan.
• Russia-Ukraine conflict:
  • BRICS should play an important role in stabilising the current events on the globe, primarily resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• Ensuring a stable macroeconomy: 
  • It can contribute significantly to global economic growth and stability by leveraging NDB, CRA, and AIIB. By effectively using the platform it can resolve the deadlock in the Ukraine region and can unclog the supply chain thus bringing prices and supplies to normalcy.
• Post-pandemic world: 
  • The world is not the same as it was before the pandemic. The forum should harness its position to bring changes in the governance of the developing world so that they can effectively recover from the pandemic after effects.
  • There is a strong need for “equity and justice” in multilateral organisations with more investment in poverty alleviation, education, health and food security.

Source:TH