How BRICS’ willingness to take on challenges makes it a real counter to West

The BRICS summit held in Kazan from October 22-24, 2024, Russia, was a landmark event in many ways. It was being held when the conflict in West Asia, Russia, and the Taiwan Straits had heightened. The parties to the ongoing conflict/dispute were present as members of the BRICS; needless to say, all these nations were on the receiving end of the West for their role in the dispute. Western media was fixated on the idea of the predominance of Russia and China, and now Iran is part of the formation.

West lost in its own narrative

What is missing in the Western narrative is that BRICS has also been seen as counter to the West’s dominance of international institutions, especially the international financial institutions. It is also an institution that promotes multipolarity and is an alternative to Western-dominated institutions. Little attention was given to the fact that besides nine BRICS member states, almost 30 other applicant states have evoked interest in its full membership. This summit was also being projected by the West as a show of strength by Russia, given its diplomatic and economic isolation by the Western states. This was obfuscating the fact that BRICS has existed for the past 15 years, and one of the G-8 members, Russia (it became G-7 again after Russia was uninvited to be its member in 2014 when Crimea, which was a Ukrainian territory, reintegrated with Russia in 2014), was a member of G-7+1 (or G-8) till 2014.

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India, a mortar for the BRICS?

From India’s point of view, the presence of Russia, China, and Iran was also an occasion to spread the idea of maintaining peace in the world and settlement of conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy. With China and Russia being its members, it is all the more important because the US’ relations with these countries have become confrontational, and India maintains fairly good relations with Russia, which would be helpful in the event of de-escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

All eyes in India were also focused on the meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The restoration of the status quo ante at India’s borders with China preceded PM Modi’s visit to China. They agreed to address the issue of border disputes with “maturity and wisdom” and to have “peaceful and stable” borders. Though many in India have accepted this with cautious optimism, the first meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping after five years was a landmark event in Indian diplomacy.

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Certain outstanding issues remain between India and China, with no immediate resolution in sight of those in the near future. Still, the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting at Kazan also sent a message to the members of BRICS that the platform will not be a ransom to the differences between the member states. It was also a riposte to the West’s understanding that India can be seen as a hedge for the West against China. This meeting between the two leaders of India and China also came in the background of India’s worsening relations with Canada, where it blamed India for certain criminal acts committed at the behest of unsubstantiated claims for which the Indian states were responsible, which was without any evidence. This was followed by the US alleging Indian state agencies to be involved in attempting to kill a US national on US soil.

PM Modi also met with the new Iranian President, Mahmoud Pezeshkian. With West Asia in turmoil and a highly anticipated attack by Israel on Iran, it was also the time for India to stress to the Iranian President the importance of the peaceful settlement of disputes, as has been India’s principled position even in Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Besides the leaders of the member states, the UN Secretary-General and thirteen ‘BRICS partner countries’ were added to this BRICS summit: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Almost all these countries’ heads of state were also in attendance.

The continued relevance of BRICS

There are many challenges before the BRICS for it to be relevant, but the fact that members of the BRICS are ready to take those challenges head-on should be great news for the non-Western world. The foremost among them has been addressing the outstanding issues on borders between India and China. Though legacy issues remain between these two formidable powers, the spirit to overcome them will go a long way in helping the goal of BRICS.

BRICS will also have to address the issues relevant to humanity, like ending the ongoing conflicts and ensuring that conflicts are nipped in the bud and should not be seen as imposing conflicts on lesser powers, as is happening in the case of Ukraine and Taiwan. Though the primary aim of BRICS should be rebalancing the World Order rather than upending it, at the same time, it must involve innovative ways to rejig the international financial structure in its favour so that it is in a bargaining position with the West on these issues. Though many of these issues do find mention in the BRICS declaration, the major task for them would be to walk the talk.

Amitabh Singh is Associate Professor, Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi. He can be reached at samitabh@gmail.com. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views