New Delhi: The BRICS summit on September 3 is another opportunity for the two Asian nations to take a step in the right direction, when PM Narendra Modi will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping, along with other leaders from Brazil, Russia, and South Africa at the 9th annual BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China.
BRICS has transformed into a representation of the changing geopolitical and geoeconomic world order. India and China realise the importance of it and the two countries released statements indicating disengagement at Doklam just a few days before the summit shows a realisation on both sides that the opportunities in cooperation for a greater say on the world stage are more than the individual territorial ambitions.
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The BRICS nations have together promoted their exports, coordinated responses in international legal disputes, successfully negotiated for an increase in voting shares at the World Bank and in an increasingly overpopulated topography of multi-lateral institutions, have consolidated their reserves to become creditors of foreign aid rather than just borrowers of the same.
The cry about the lack of consistency among BRICS nations, especially India and China, has often been over emphasized in western media outlets. The EU and the US were themselves at odds in several political and economic transatlantic agreements during the first five years of the GATT
(which then evolved into the WTO).
Likewise, it is true, for India and China, that there exist multiple points of divergence between the two countries, but that is also exactly why sitting on the same table is important.
It would be sensible for China to stop treating India as an economic laggard to itself that can be pushed into submission and realise that such actions only push India, against its will, towards the west.
India, on the other hand, must continue to advocate for an increased joint collaboration with China in multilateral institutions, even if it’s voting shares in such institutions is second to China.
In line with the theme of the summit, which is “Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future”, India and China must use BRICS to build a house, not a wall.
Source: The Indian Express