What happened? On 23 June, China, being the Chair, hosted and initiated the 14th BRICS Summit in Xiamen city. President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address at the virtual summit and called for openness in the world order while advocating multilateralism and opposing hegemonic politics.
Xi’s remarks stressed on opposing sanctions, promoting the emergence of non-Western powers, boosting innovation and cooperation, and repeatedly emphasized the importance of collective action and openness in the international order. Xi urged the BRICS member countries to expand the group and said: “This year we have, on separate occasions, had in-depth discussions on the question of membership expansion. It is important to advance this process to allow like-minded partners to become part of the BRICS family at an early date.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “The BRICS format has been consistently increasing its prestige and international influence. This is an objective process, since the five BRICS countries, as we all know, have immense political, economic, scientific, technical and human potential.”
Indian Prime Minister Modi implored the members to improve connectivity and said: “There are multiple areas wherein through cooperation between BRICS nations, the citizens have benefitted. By increasing connectivity between BRICS Youth Summits, BRICS Sports, civil society organizations and think-tanks, we’ve strengthened our people-to-people connect.”
South African President highlighted the benefits reaped by the country as a part of the group and said: “The BRICS membership of South Africa allows the country to employ additional and powerful tools in its fight to address its domestic triple challenge of unemployment, poverty, and inequality through science, technology, and innovation, energy, health, and education cooperation, as well as through BRICS financing for infrastructure development, capacity building, research, educational and skilling, trade, investment, and tourism opportunities.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called for joint efforts by the BRICS countries in reforming the United Nations system. During the BRICS Business Forum, Bolsonaro said: “The connection among our business communities is one of our priorities at BRICS. By getting to know each other better, our entrepreneurs can close deals that will result in mutual gains, also benefiting the workers in our countries.”
At the Summit, the member countries adopted the BRICS 2022 declaration which placed emphasis on “Strengthening and reforming global governance, working in solidarity to combat COVID-19, safeguarding peace and security, promoting Economic recovery, expediting implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and deepening people-to-people exchanges and institutional development.”
What does it mean?
The 14th BRICS summit reiterated the need to collectively address global challenges and engage with more countries in the developing world. A few countries within the group consider BRICS as a tool to engage further with other Latin American and African countries as they foresee potential and believe in uniting the emerging economies against the West. The evolution of the objectives of the group from economic to political unitedness shows the changing nature of the international order. It also clarifies China and Russia’s intentions in creating an anti-West grouping and increasing their influence in the South-South cooperation.
On Ukraine, although the joint declaration at the BRICS summit called for dialogue between the warring countries, the group did not elaborate on a clear solution to end the war. The action depicts the failure of the group to address and resolve conflicts because of the China-Russia superiority.