What is BRICS | Everything you need to know

BRICS Countries

BRICS, it is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies, they are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally it was BRIC not BRICS, the inclusion of South Africa in the year 2010 made the group BRICS.

India will host the 8th BRICS Summit which will take place on 15-16 October 2016 in the state of Goa. Usually this summit lasts for a day or two to discuss economic issues related to Finance, Trade, Health, S&T, Education, Agriculture, Communication, Labor etc.. so the whole idea is to have a practical cooperation through meetings, which felicitates discussions of their mutual interests. All the member nations of BRICS are also part of G20 summit. Now that’s another international forum for 20 major economies.

So what is it that is so different about BRICS?

It is a well known fact that 43% of the world population comprises of people from these 5 countries. Because then we have 30% of the world GDP and 17% share of world trade being controlled only by the BRICS member countries. Being a part of a group or an organizations is very important, it forms a union of like-minded people, in this case it’s a union of like-minded governments.

BRICS countries world trade contribution

BRICS countries total GDP

BRICS countries total population count

How did BRICS come together? 

The word BRIC was initially coined in a publication written by Jim o’neil, the then chairman of Goldman Sachs. You can read the whole paper here on this website. Then in September 2006, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China met in New York at a general debate of the United nation’s general assembly and kicked off with a series of high level meetings. After four years, that is on June 2009, Brazil, Russia, India and China conducted a full scale diplomatic meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia. So this meeting laid the foundation and was known as the first BRIC Summit. From India, Manmohan Singh became the first Prime Minister to attend the 1st BRIC Summit. In the same year that is in 2010, South Africa showed interest in joining the BRIC group. Later that year, on December 24, 2010 South Africa officially joined the BRIC group making it BRICS, where S stands for South Africa.

Till now, 7 BRICS summit have taken place:-

1. Yekaterinburg, Russia on 16 June 2009
2. Brasilia, Brazil on 16 April 2010
3. Sanya, China on 14 April 2011
4. New Delhi, India on 29 march 2012
5. Durban, South Africa on 26 march 2013
6. Fortaleza, Brazil on 14 July 2014
7. Ufa, Russia on 8 July 2015
8. Goa, India on 15 Oct 2016

Expectations in the 8th seating of the BRICS forum in Goa, India

India has adopted what we call as the five points approach, and they are:-

BRICS Institution Building

The 1st one is Institution building - basically what it means is that with the help of institutions, the BRICS member countries can constantly interact, participate and develop new models that would benefit each other's economy.

The 2nd one is Implementing decisions from previous Summits - In 2015 BRICS summit held in Ufa, Russia there were decision towards creation of a multilateral development bank which was named as New Development Bank (NDB). The objective of this bank is to support public and private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments. This initiative was given by India during the 4th BRICS summit in New Delhi. There is still more work that needs to be done, like the bank will now allow new members to join to increase the share of capital. So many of important decisions need to be implemented.

The 3rd point is Integrate the existing cooperation mechanisms - now Cooperative Mechanism are very important because they provide a framework that compels the member states to cooperate, contribute and share responsibilities. Every member country has their own problems and they can easily get occupied with that, but if they have to keep the BRICS group alive then there has to be mechanism that makes them do so.

BRICS Cooperation Mechanisms

The 4th point is Innovation with the help of new cooperation mechanisms - so in the previous point it was about integrating meaning bringing together the existing cooperative mechanisms, but this point is about innovation, making new frameworks and policies that will bring the member countries together in sharing responsibilities.

and the last 5th point is Continuity, i.e., continuation of existing BRICS cooperation mechanisms - Now this point totally sums up the whole agenda. Consistency, continuity is an important aspect of foreign diplomacy. though big talks and promises often fail to create the necessary impact. Therefore continuity is the key. Members have to be persistence, persuade till the talks become a reality.

Watch the video to understand it in a much better sense:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVFbWeOC6g