13th BRICS Summit:

The 13th BRICS Summit is going to be held under India’s Chairship in 2021. It will be the third time that India will be hosting the BRICS Summit after 2012 and 2016.

• The Indian Chairship of BRICS this year coincides with the fifteenth anniversary of BRICS, as reflected in the theme for the Summit.
• The theme for the Summit: ‘BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus.’

Priority areas under the Indian BRICS Chairship:

India had outlined four priority areas for its Chairship. These are Reform of the:

1. Multilateral System.
2. Counter Terrorism.
3. Using Digital and Technological Tools for achieving SDGs.
4. Enhancing People to People exchanges.

Background:

The BRICS summit is taking place at a time two of the Bloc’s members, India and China, are locked in a bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh for over six months.

• The BRICS is known as an influential Bloc that represents over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world’s population.
• Such summits are significant for India as the BRICS countries have a combined GDP of USD 16.6 trillion.

What is BRICS?

BRICS is the group composed of the five major emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

• It together represents about 42% of the population, 23% of GDP, 30% of the territory and 18% of the global trade.
• The acronym BRIC was coined by economist ‘Jim O’Neill’ of Goldman Sachs in 2001 to indicate the emerging powers that would be, alongside the United States, the five largest economies of the world in the 21st century.
• In 2006, BRIC countries started their dialogue, which since 2009 takes place at annual meetings of heads of state and government.
• In 2011, with South Africa joining the group, the BRICS reached its final composition, incorporating a country from the African continent.

• PM’s Address:
  
  • 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’.
• Adopted BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan:
  
  • 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.
• Adopted Delhi Declaration:
  
  • 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.
• On Covid-19:
  
  • 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.
  
  • India is the chair for 2021.
• During the Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza (Brazil) in 2014, the leaders signed the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB – Shanghai, China). They also signed the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement to provide short-term liquidity support to the members.