The Xiamen Bonhomie: Underscoring BRICS Triumphalism and Pragmatism

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Image tweeted by @ PMO India

The Ninth BRICS Summit at Xiamen, China on 4 September 2017 has surprised the whole world with an unprecedented outcome. There were imaginations across the world of two major leaders of India and China not even seeing each other and exchanging pleasantries. The meet has surpassed and astounded even the expectation of the policymakers, thinkers, academicians and the citizens of these countries equally. The summit proved to be one of the most fruitful summits of the nine held so far. What lead to this colossal transformation itself is a curious case. Firstly, the world economy as a whole is not in great position and analyzing each of the countries growth, and GDP does not seem to be progressing in the manner anticipated by the respective BRICS leaders. Secondly, terrorism being the common security concern for all the countries, though it might not be affecting all the countries today in a way it is impacting India, yet all of them are aware of the extent and spurious growth of it across the world which would, in turn, would make these countries feel guilty at a later stage for not having acted upon. More so for China as it has ambitious plan to enter Pakistan and invest in CPEC and its twenty-first century Silk Road like the initiative of Belt and Road project. To secure its position and also its trade partners, China is forced to undergo this massive transformation. Thirdly, if the idea of starting a new economic forum were to challenge the Bretton Woods system and challenge the hegemony of the West, failing to arrive at a consensus in every annual meet would also defeat the very purpose and make the initiative null and void.

Analysing each of the components mentioned above, it makes clear of the fact that the neoliberal order trumps everything in the world we live with and all the nations in the BRICS seem to have acted in more pragmatic and business as usual manner. There is a huge concern across the world on the sluggish economic growth and more so about India and China. Though the Chinese government has been projecting its growth as much more stable one, there are reports which indicate the growth to be placed somewhere closer to 6 percent. About India, the idea of demonetization though projected to be working out in the long term in curbing fake currency, black money and pushing for digital payments, temporarily it has slowed down growth to 5.7 percent and has also resulted in job loss and a weak market. As such Russia, Brazil and South Africa have not been doing great. Keeping it in mind, though there were expectations that India and China would be wary of each other at the summit in the wake of Doklam crisis, the countries showed maturity and remained pragmatic to push the business first approach. China at this juncture where it has to find jobs for its people and also sustain the economy with an ambitious population in its country probably did a wise thing by taking into consideration the larger picture.

The aspect of countering terrorism though has been on the cards for a while, the Goa declaration of BRICS could not bring the much-desired aspect of naming certain terrorist networks in Pakistan and elsewhere. Whereas the Xiamen declaration, for the first time highlighted its shared concerns on terrorism emanating from Pakistan and from other parts of the world too. Though certain media houses almost started celebrating in India, at no point Pakistan’s name was taken for that matter. Pakistan has also been claiming that it has been a victim of terrorism and would say that it shares the concern with members of BRICS. Looking from a positive perspective, at least there is progress and may be in the coming years there might be improvements in this regard. India, rather than using it as a victory for herself, in the larger interest of curbing terrorism, should declare it as triumphalism of BRICS itself as the others don’t feel let out and it would send across a positive note for them to join India in its fight against terrorism. It also has to be acknowledged that the second BRICS Counter-Terrorism Working Group Meeting held in Beijing on 18 May 2017 played a crucial role in this combined approach towards condemning and naming terror outfits.

The summit agreed upon the usage of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) by formulating the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership to strengthen political and security cooperation through BRICS High Representatives. The CRA is a framework for the provision of support through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures. The very idea of taking forward and strengthening CRA itself shows how pragmatic has been BRICS. CRA is also seen as something that should be able to take on international monetary institutions such as IMF and World Bank. It was also interesting to see how certain things which are part of the global commons were discussed and found a place in the declaration. The global commons will help reduce tensions among the member states and brings some convergence. Climate change worked as a catalyst in this summit to reaffirm the commitment to reducing the carbon footprint. The summit used the forum to concentrate and expand green financing in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication to enhance BRICS cooperation on climate change. The commitment to fully implement the Paris Agreement under the principles of UNFCCC including the policies of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities was reiterated.

The ninth BRICS summit has not been a success of any one country but can be dubbed as triumphalism of the grouping and a convincing win for the pragmatism exhibited by member states. When the West was probably looking for a greater tension between China and India due to tensions on the border, both the countries behaved in a matured manner for the larger interest of BRICS in its effort to create an alternate financial system for the rest. The role of India and China combined will be vital for the success of BRICS in the foreseeable future.

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Dr. Nanda Kishor is Assistant Professor (Senior Scale) in the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University, Manipal. He recently completed his Post-doc at University of Leiden, Netherlands with ERASMUS MUNDUS Fellowship form the European Union. He has been teaching subjects of contemporary interest such as India’s Foreign Policy, Concept of War and Peace in Geopolitics, Terrorism and Asymmetric Conflicts and Comparative Politics with special reference to USA, UK, Russia and China, Indian Government and Politics and India’s National Security and Defence Management. Dr. Kishor has been working on conflict resolution, West Asia, refugees and international law, internally displaced persons, and governance. He was a recipient of Short-Term Junior Research Fellowship by UNHCR, Brookings (USA), Government of Finland and MCRG (Kolkata). He visited Hochschule University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany on a short term fellowship by DAAD sponsored program of HS Bremen, available to Manipal University in 2012. Dr. Kishor was also conferred the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) by the United States State Department of Government of United States of America (USA) during June-July 2013. Dr. Kishor is also a Visiting Fellow at the Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs – AIDIA, Katmandu, Nepal. He has a number of publications in journals and edited volumes.