The Kazan BRICS Summit: An Analysis | P. S. Jayaramu

25th October, 2024

The annual summit of the BRICS member nations was held in Kazan, Russia, from 22-24th of October. An analysis of the summit and its official communique is very much in order. Before doing so, let me present a bird’s eye view of the organisation and its summits so far.

BRICS is an inter-governmental organisation consisting of Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. It is, thus, an inter-continental forum representing Asia, (including Iran and UAE) Africa, Latin America and Russia, which is often described as an Eurasian country. Hence, as an organisation, BRICS is truly unique representing different cultures, Political systems and different levels of economic and military might, with Russia, China and India, being nuclear weapons-states. Initially, the organisation had the objective of promoting investment opportunities among the member nations, which continues even today. But, it soon started projecting itself as a geo-political grouping as it represents 30 percent of the world’s land area and 45 percent of the global population. The organisation came to acquire more prominence with South Africa’s membership in 2011. Annual summits take place with one of the members hosting the gathering. In the wake of the Covid-19, the 2021 summit was hosted by India virtually, that of the 2022 by China, also virtually. South Africa organised the 2023 summit and the latest by Russia recently.

The Kazan Summit:

The summit at Kazan, Russia, was attended by all the nine member states. The formal summit apart, the member states held bilateral meetings among themselves, significant among them being the meetings between Prime Minister Modi and President Putin and the one between Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping. For Modi and Putin, it was a second meeting this year as the two had met barely three months ago. Since Prime Minister Modi met the Ukranian President Zelenskyy and the US President Biden subsequently, it was an opportunity for him to brief Putin about what transpired in his meetings with them. Modi reiterated his keenness in helping Russia and Ukraine to put an end to the war, though of course he has not outlined any specific proposals as such.

For the Indian media, more so the electronic media, the BRICS summit was a side-show, with their central focus being on the Modi-Xi meeting, as the two leaders were shaking hands after a gap of five years in the wake of the Chinese military invasion in the Galwan valley. Modi-Xi meeting was a sequel to the decision of the two governments to bring about disengagement of troops on the friction points in the Eastern Ladakh sector, allowing border patrolling operations. So much so, in their bilateral talks, the two leaders stressed the importance of ‘handling their differences and disagreements to facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations’.

The Kazan Declaration :

The theme of the summit was “ Strenthening Multilateralism For Just Global Development and Security”. A laudable theme, but just development remains a mirage going by the inequality that characterises the world we habitate, thanks to the deliberately unhelpful policies pursued by the developed Nortn. Security too is a chimera if one goes by the wars going on in Ukraine and Gaza and Lebenon, exacerbated by the continuous supply of weapons by the West, principally by the United States, to Ukraine and Israel, resulting in the killing of thousands of innocent children and women.

The section on the Ukraine Conflict refers to “the leaders reaffirming the importance of the principles of the UN Charter and welcoming the good offices and mediation efforts under way to a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy”. Very generic phrases, with no mention of Russia ( it was perhaps out of question, with Russia being the host) and Ukraine.

In contrast, the section on the Middle East Crisis, is more specific, expectedly though, with the Declaration voicing its grave concern over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and South Lebanon. It condemns the loss of lives and the immense damage to civilian infrastrcture resulting from attacks by Israel in residential areas in Lebanon and called for immediate cessation of military acts”. As widely commented upon, the communique was principally drafted by the Russia and China diplomats on behalf of the group.

The Declaration reaffirms, again in high sounding words, the ‘commitment of the group for mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness’, etc. Frankly speaking, the member States have to do some heart searching about the space they have given to democracy and openness, given the fact that many of them are anything but democratic in terms of their political systems!

The Declaration commends Russia’s Chairmanship for hosting the BRICS plus dialogue with participation of EMDCs from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Middle East under the motto “ BRICS and Global South : Building a Better World Together”. Needless to say, the BRICS forum has to work in close coordination with the Global South (G20) in a sustained institutionalised framework for achieving a better world for the developing nations. It requires close contact and cooperation between the state institutions and civil society groups both within and outside their national systems/ frameworks. The universities and Think Tanks in the member nations should also be associated in the task of preparing the blueprints for action in these urgent areas.

Quite rightly, the Declaration emphasises the dire need for reforming the current international financial architecture to meet the global financial challenges. The BRICS Interbank focus on Cooperation Mechanism (ICM) for facilitating and expanding financial practices was laudatory. In this regard, the Declaration calls for maintaining a strong IMF with effective financial safety-net for the developing nations. One of the welcome decisions at Kazan was the agreement to strengthen financial settlements involving trade in local currencies. The accent was on reducing the hegemony of dollar transactions, which are to the disadvantage of the larger Global South, was indeed apt.

Among the other important, but less emphasised, issues which find a place in the Kazan Declaration are the facilitation of a BRICS Grain Exchange Programme, aimed at aiding the member nations, (these measures ought to have been done initiated earlier), pandemic preparedness with a BRICS R&D Vaccine Centre and environmental conservation.

By way of conclusion, it is gratifying to note that the summit at Russia provided the much needed fillip to the BRICS forum to assert its rightful place to promote multilateralism and to make the world truly multipolar.

(Author: Prof. P. S. Jayaramu is former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Bangalore University and former Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi)