Talks on terrorism to economics: What to expect from BRICS and SCO summits in Russia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will once again be seated at the high table of international diplomacy in a few days when he attends two back-to-back summits of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) in Ufa, Russia. A novelty this time will be the SCO summit (10 July) which the Indian Prime Minister will be attending for the first time. India is tipped to be made the full member of the grouping, along with Pakistan. Iran too has been waiting in the wings for years but its wait may stretch a bit more till international sanctions on Tehran are not completely removed. [caption id=“attachment_2327816” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PM Narendra Modi during the BRICS summit in July, 2014. AFP[/caption] Rise of Islamic State in Afghanistan will inevitably top the agenda at both the summits, which  Firstpost had reported earlier . SCO, which has a deep focus on Central Asia, has reasons to be alarmed at reports of the rapid rise of influence of IS in Afghanistan, particularly when at least three of the Central Asian countries share border with Afghanistan. Tajikistan has almost 1500 kilometers border with Afghanistan. From India’s point of view, it is of utmost importance that counterterrorism linkages are built up in the region in double quick time. India already has Joint Working Groups with many of the Central Asian countries. Indian officials are not very keen to talk about the SCO summit and India’s maiden participation largely because India, as of now, is technically having an observer status only. India had formally applied for membership of the SCO prior to summit in Dushanbe in September 2014. The SCO foreign ministers met in June in Moscow and they have made a positive recommendation to India’s full membership.. The upcoming BRICS summit in Ufa (8-9 July) will be the 7th and it will be the third time that PM Modi will be interacting with his peers in BRICS after having attended the 6th BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil last year and a meeting of BRICS leaders in Brisbane on the margins of the last G20 summit in Australia. On 8 July the leaders are going to meet in an informal milieu over dinner, while the formal summit programme will begin on 9 July. There will be the customary meeting that leaders have with members of the BRICS Business Council which comprises five business leaders from each member state. The Business Council stays in touch through the year and they present an annual report to their leaders. The two-part summit programme also incorporates a restricted session which includes a working lunch and a plenary. The theme of this summit is “BRICS Partnership – A Powerful Factor for Global Development”. The agenda for the summit covers both political and economic issues, but the emphasis is on the economic cooperation. The summit will conclude with a media interaction. There will be a 90-minute BRICS Outreach Session for which Russia as the Chair of BRICS has invited the all leaders of SCO, both members and observers, as well as the members of the Eurasian Economic Union as also Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. A total of 12 leaders who will be meeting the five BRICS leaders for that session. BRICS summits are normally preceded by a large number of activities which carry on through the year at governmental and non-governmental levels. These include meetings of trade ministers, the BRICS Business Forum, National Statistical Authorities, the Economic Forum, BRICS Academic Forum and the Think Tank Council. This time will be no exception. The BRICS Business Council leaders are going to meet on 7-8 July and present an annual report to the leaders. Besides, Russia has convened a meeting of BRICS finance ministers immediately in Moscow on 7 July, a day ahead of the summit in Ufa. Besides, environment ministers, health ministers, National Security Advisors, culture ministers have already held meetings in the run up to the summit. Sujata Mehta, Secretary (Multilateral Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, described the importance of BRICS for India as follows: “We regard this as a very important forum for consolidating positions among five significant economies in the world on issues of common interest. The most significant issues in this format are issues of governance as well as of coordination and cooperation on global economic and financial issues.” A significant concrete deliverable of the BRICS process is the coming up of the New Development Bank, which represents an alternative form of global economic governance and an alternative model to what the Bretton Woods institutions do. The BRICS bank is starting with five countries that are going to be the original shareholders which are going to be at par. The first President of the BRICS Development Bank is an Indian, the eminent banker KV Kamath. The first meeting of the Board of Governors of the New Development Bank which Russia as the first Chair of the Board of Governors is going to be leading will be held a day ahead of the summit. The BRICS Bank is to have a global character, drawing into its membership eventually any member of the United Nations and every country is eligible to join. An important point which is going to figure high in the BRICS summit agenda is intra-BRICS trade occurring in the currencies of the BRICS member countries. The Development Banks have actually been preparing and signing in that order documents on this topic. They are looking at extending letters of credit in local currencies and also developing other arrangements which would facilitate this. “The process is yet to be established or to be utilized, but the preparatory work is actually happening,” Sujata Mehta has gone on record as saying on 3 July. Besides, BRICS is close to an agreement on an economic cooperation strategy which will be a major step forward. The last BRICS summit in Fortaleza had mandated the officials who deal with BRICS to come together and create an economic cooperation strategy document. The Trade Ministries of all five countries have been actively engaged in this exercise. BRICS is on the cusp of another achievement. All five member countries have now ratified the Contingent Reserve Arrangement which was set at the previous Fortaleza summit. This is going to be concretized at the Ufa summit. The writer is a Consulting Editor with Firstpost and a strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.