BRICS SUMMIT

• Recently, the Prime Minister chaired the annual summit of the BRICS which was held virtually.
• The theme for the Summit was ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus’.

Important points:

• Highlighted the achievement of several new initiatives during India’s Chairship this year (2021), i.e. an Agreement on cooperation in the field of remote-sensing satellites; a virtual BRICS vaccine Research & Development Centre; BRICS Alliance on Green Tourism, etc.
• Highlighting the leading role that BRICS countries can play in the post-Covid global recovery, Prime Minister called for enhanced BRICS cooperation under the motto of ‘Build-back Resiliently, Innovatively, Credibly and Sustainably’.
• It defines the approach and actions of the BRICS countries towards areas of Counter Terrorism cooperation which includes: Countering Radicalization and Online Terrorist Threats, Border Management, Information/ Intelligence Sharing, etc.
• The declaration called for reforms of the principal organs of the United Nations including that of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
• It is the first time that BRICS has taken a collective position on ‘Strengthening and Reforming Multilateral Systems’.
• It also called for an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue” for stability in Afghanistan
• Apart from Afghanistan, the BRICS leaders also took up the conflicts in Myanmar, Syria, the tension in the Korean peninsula, Israel-Palestine violence and other territorial disputes
• Noted the proposal made by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) mechanism to ensure a rapid expansion of the Covid-19 vaccine production around the world.

BRICS

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• In 2001, the British Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers’ in 2006.
• South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS.
• The BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41% of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16% of the global trade.
• The chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT