Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a BRICS summit in Russia recently to showcase ambitions for a more harmonious relationship between the world’s two most populous countries after years of animosity. The meeting between Xi and Modi, who have not held formal talks for five years, was one highlight of a summit. BRICS also gave an opportunity to the Russian President Vladimir Putin for showcasing that the West had failed to isolate Russia over the Ukraine war.

A final communique listed a number of projects aimed at facilitating trade between BRICS nations including an alternative payment system to the dollar but did not include details or timelines. Just two days after New Delhi announced that it had reached a deal with Beijing to resolve a four-year military stand-off on their disputed Himalayan frontier, Xi told Modi that they should enhance communication and cooperation and effectively manage differences. BRICS - an idea thought up inside Goldman Sachs two decades ago to describe the growing economic clout of China and other major emerging markets - is now a group that accounts for 45Former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill, who coined the BRIC term in 2001, told Reuters that he had little optimism for the BRICS club as long as China and India remained so divided. ”It seems to me basically to be a symbolie annual gathering where important emerging countries, particularly noisy ones like Russia, but also China, can basically get together and highlight how good it is to be part of something that doesn’t involve the U.S. and that global governance isn’t good enough,” The 43-page final communique from the summit ranged from geopolitics and narcoties to artificial intelligence and even the preservation of Big Cats, but lacked detail on some major issues.

It mentioned Ukraine just once. (Excerpts from ”Putin scores a BRICS win with rare Xi and Modi show of harmony” By Vladimir Soldatkin and Guy Faulconbridge, Reuters, October 23, 2024)

The emergence of BRICS signals: