BRICS Bloc Remains A Divided House

Thanks to the India-Pakistan standoff, the BRICS bloc remained a divided house and Pakistan, that is not a part of the group, had the last laugh once again.

True to expectation, Pakistan turned out to be the spoilsport at the summit by proxy with the overt support that it received from China to foil the arduous attempts by India to implicate it for its role in breaching peace along the border. Even as India raised the issue of terrorism from across the border strongly at the BRICS summit and accused Pakistan of fostering militants, China refused to endorse India's claim. China, in fact, stood by Pakistan emphasizing all along that Pakistan has had to suffer while carrying out operations against terrorism.

(A day before the commencement of the BRICS summit on October 14, BW had carried an analysis in this regard with the title 'Pakistan may play foul in BRICS summit by proxy'.)

However, in order to seek a consensus from Russia and China, in particular, to fight against the menace, India cashed-in on the situation by signing a series of accords with Russia in the defence sector in particular presumably to show its military strength to Pakistan.

Interestingly, after abetting vertical splits in Indian society -- including political parties and cine fraternities that have eventually boiled down to political intrigues and mutual distrust as a fallout of the surgical strike -- Pakistan played its cards well to make its sinister implication felt at the BRICS summit too. In a clear departure from the set purpose of the BRICS summit -- that is primarily meant to ensure economic cooperation among the member nations -- the two key member countries, India and China, could not afford to ignore their respective hatred and support towards Pakistan.

India appeared to have suffered loss of face while hosting the 8th summit of BRICS bloc at Goa on October 15-16, 2016. While on the one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Indian delegation had to face criticism for detracting from its pledge to isolate Pakistan on every international platform, at the same time, it could hardly register its contribution being host of the summit while dealing with economic agendas.

The abortive attempts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek consensus from other member nations to declare Pakistan the 'Mother-ship of terrorism' was virtually rejected by China. Modi did not take the name of Pakistan and termed it as the 'Mother-ship of terrorism is in the neighborhood'. Instead, the 'all-weather' friend of Pakistan, China explicitly denounced the idea to level, what it considered, unfounded allegations against Pakistan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said: "Everyone knows that India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism. Pakistan has made huge efforts and great sacrifices in fighting terrorism. I think the international community should respect this."

Consequently, India failed to address the economic agenda that the summit was meant for and the exercise of populist measures to isolate Pakistan at international forum went awry as well. The past bears testimony to the fact that earlier BRICS summits prioritized economic agendas. For instance, the 7th BRICS summit held in 2015 in the Russian city of Ufa included agreements of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement. During the summit inaugural meetings of the NDB were held, and it was announced it would be lending in local currency and that it would open up membership to non-BRICS countries. In the 6th BRICS summit that was held in 2014 in Brazil, the group signed a document to create the US$100 billion New Development Bank as well as a reserve currency pool worth an additional US$100 billion. Documents on cooperation between BRICS export credit agencies and an agreement of cooperation on innovation were also signed.

The 5th BRICS summit held in 2013 at Durban in South Africa discussed the creation of the development bank, in a follow-up from the previous summit. It sought to create an infrastructure-focused bank. Likewise, the 4th BRICS summit that was held in 2012 in New Delhi, India stressed upon the need of creation of a new development bank. The idea for setting up such a bank was put forward by India, as a sign of firming the power of the group and increasing its influence in global decision-making and so on.

Indeed, Modi's attack on Pakistan was potent enough to allay the anti-Pakistan outcry in the country, but the pertinent question is whether the issue of terrorism was in consonance with the agenda of the BRICS summit? As per the rationale behind the constitution of the BRICS group, member nations are supposed to contribute their mite for development and protection of the economy of each other and the most notable contention in support of its economic significance is that the term "BRIC" was coined in 2001 by the then chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill, in his publication Building Better Global Economic BRICs ostensibly to address entirely an economic agenda.

To top it all, in the light of the belief that the BRICS bloc plays a bigger role in international affairs, non-economic issues such as prevention of military invasion of Syria, as well as the elimination of chemical weapons in that country were highlighted at the 6th BRICS summit in Brazil. As such, this time around, Modi had enough reasons to spew venom against Pakistan using the platform, but they were, unfortunately, of no avail; China neither supported India on the latter's bid for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group nor did it budge over the UNSC veto that it used to avoid designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist. Besides, even Brazil preferred to be non-committal about India's aspirations to join the NSG when it issued a statement that 'it will work with others to help India move towards its membership'.