Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the annual summit of the five-nation grouping, BRICS, on Thursday in the virtual format. The meeting will be attended by Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chinese president Xi Jinping, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
It is expected that the situation in Afghanistan will be widely discussed during the meet. In addition to this, the leaders will also exchange views on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and other current global and regional issues.
BRICS is a collective of the five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 42 percent of the global population, 23 percent of the global GDP and 16 percent of the global trade. The five countries also cover an area of over 39,000,000 square kilometres, which is approximately 27 percent of the world’s land surface.
From the Indian perspective, BRICS has emerged as the voice of developing countries or the global south. As these countries face an aggressive club of developed countries, raising challenges on issues from World Trade Organisation to climate change, New Delhi believes BRICS has to protect the rights of the developing countries.
Moreover, BRICS platform provides an opportunity for India to balance Russia-China axis. It also provides a platform for India to galvanize its efforts against terrorism and has worked within the grouping to take a strong stand against terrorism and bring about focused consultations on specific aspects relating to terrorism.
The Afghanistan situation and apprehensions about terror infrastructure in the Afghan territory will top the agenda of the BRICS Summit on 9 September.
The forthcoming summit comes at a time when China and Russia have already established contact with the Taliban dispensation. They are currently engaging the Taliban and they have also kept their missions in Kabul open at a time when most nations have pulled their diplomats out of Afghanistan because of security concerns.
As Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin noted that the BRICS countries already had “communication and coordination” on the Afghan issue at the meeting of their National Security Advisors, held on 24 August, where they adopted an action plan to boost practical cooperation in combating terrorism and terror financing, in the backdrop of mounting concerns over the possibility of various terror groups stepping up activities from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The grouping is expected to discuss the matter of recognition of the new Taliban caretaker government in Afghanistan and channelising development aid under BRICS Development Bank, also called the New Development Bank.
As Russia and China have shown an inclination towards the Taliban, they are expected to insist that the BRICS Bank extend aid to the war-torn country, the economy of which lies in tatters.
However, a source said that India, Brazil and South Africa may not agree to this, adding that these countries would want the BRICS Bank to extend support to developmental projects in other countries.
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