Dear Readers, the 8th BRICS Summit took place on October 15-16 in Goa under the Chairmanship of India. BRICS, grouping Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is a unique international mechanism which has been playing an important role in rebalancing global influence thereby having positive effects on world economy and politics.
The two day summit was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Michel Temer and South African President Jacob Zuma. The theme for the summit was “Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions”.
Key Highlights of Goa Declaration
I. BRICS nations condemns terrorism in all its forms and stressed that there can be no justification for such acts.
II. International terrorism, especially the Islamic State (IS) is an unprecedented threat to international peace and security.
III. BRICS nations reaffirmed the commitment to increase effectiveness of the UN counter terrorism framework.
IV. Need for adaptation of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN General Assembly.
V. Urgent need to reforms of the United Nations, including UN Security Council, to increase representation of developing countries.
VI. Resolution of civil war in Syria, in accordance with the “legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria” and action against U.N.-designated terrorist groups like IS and Jabhat al-Nusra.
VII. All nations must counter radicalism and block sources of financing international terrorism, dismantling terrorist bases and countering misuse of the Internet including social media.
VIII. Appreciated progress in implementation of Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership and emphasise importance of BRICS Roadmap for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation until 2020.
IX. Welcomed adoption of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.
X. Reiterated determination to use all policy tools to achieve the goal of sustainable and inclusive growth.
XI. BRICS nations also signed 3 MoUs that include:
a) MoU for Establishment of BRICS Agricultural Research Platform
b) MoU on Mutual Cooperation between Diplomatic Academies
c) MoU on Regulations on Customs Cooperation Committee of the BRICS
XII. The ninth BRICS Summit will be hosted by China in 2017.
Besides, first-ever BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit was also held on side-lines of 2016 BRICS Summit. Leaders from both forums planned to jointly explore possibilities of expanding ties between them on issues such as terrorism, economy, trade and connectivity. BIMSTEC stands for Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. BIMSTEC member countries are Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
All about BRICS:
BRICS brings together five major emerging economies, comprising 43% of the world population, having 30% of the world GDP and 17% share in the world trade.
The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, "The World Needs Better Economic BRICs" on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.
As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the Leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. The grouping was formalized during the 1st meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of UNGA in New York in 2006. The 1st BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.
It was agreed to expand BRIC into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in September 2010. Accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya, China on 14 April 2011.
Previous BRICS Summits:
Seven BRICS Summits have taken place so far. The 8th BRICS Summit will be hosted by India during its Chairmanship in 2016. The earlier Summits were held as under:
- 8th BRICS Summit – 2 to 6 September 2016 in India ( New Delhi)
- 7th BRICS Summit – 8-9 July 2015 in Russia (Ufa)
- 6th BRICS Summit - 14–16 July 2014 in Brazil (Fortaleza)
- 5th BRICS Summit - 26–27 March 2013 in South Africa (Durban)
- 4th BRICS Summit - 29 March 2012 in India (New Delhi)
- 3rd BRICS Summit - 14 April 2011 in China (Sanya)
- 2nd BRIC Summit - 16 April 2010 in Brazil (Brasilia)
- 1st BRIC Summit - 16 June 2009 in Russia (Yekaterinburg)