New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Russia from October 22 to 23 to attend the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s second visit to Russia this year after one in July for a bilateral summit. The Prime Minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BRICS members.
China’s Foreign Ministry said that Chinese President Xi Jinping will also be attending the Kazan summit and the meeting of PM Modi and President Xi would be closely looked at. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security’.
A new world order
Ahead of the summit, President Putin has talked of the importance of the BRICS alliance and how he is hopeful that the group will be generating most of the global economic growth in the coming years. “The countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth. In the foreseeable future, BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP,” Putin said. “The economic growth of BRICS members will increasingly depend less on external influence or interference. This is essentially economic sovereignty,” he further added. Putin also hopes to expand the BRICS grouping, which already includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to expand and add Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates in the max, with aspirations to counter Western hegemony in global politics and trade.
Established in 2009, BRICS was essentially seen as a new international institution that could change the balance of global politics which for a long time has been dominated by Western powers and had ceased to serve developing countries. Putin has time and time emphasised that BRICS is not an anti-Western organisation but rather a non-Western one, a statement that has also been echoed by Prime Minister Modi.
The alliance can grow around Russia, which has close relations with both India and China. In conversations around the summit, Putin called Modi a “friend” and expressed gratitude for India’s balanced stance on the issue. He also accused the U.S. of attempting to hinder China’s development, comparing the effort to “telling the Sun to stop rising.” In this way, Russia can help bring India and China closer and form a triad which has the potential to upset Western dominance, ensure security and development in the region which would be beneficial for all parties in the mix.
India, China and Russia are three of the biggest countries in the world which together encompass approximately 40 per cent of the world’s 6.5 billion people. While there is no military angle to this alliance, economically these three rising powers can be of huge help to one another. India and China should not have any reservations to this, burying their old hatchet and going towards a new path of prosperity.
Vladimir Putin has consistently pressed for a multi-polar world and with both India and China having close relations with Russia, this could materialise and BRICS is the ideal platform for this. China and India have for several centuries engaged in extensive trade through the Maritime Silk Road and it is only recently that relations between the two have soured. A foundation for a comprehensive India-China alliance already exists, if they can look behind on their recent border skirmishes, there is huge potential in this burgeoning alliance.
India is wary of close ties with China not only because of unresolved border issues but also due to China’s support to Pakistan. China on the other hand has not been too happy with growing closeness between India and the US. These though are issues that can be resolved, especially with Russia’s help and such a dialogue, even if it takes time, can go a long way in creating a new world order that is not overly dependent on the US.
The alliance need not be particularly or solely aggressive. It can start with economic cooperation and then go into other aspects of development. Be it infrastructure, technology, anti-terrorism; India, China and Russia can hugely benefit from mutual alliance and cooperation.
