BRICS – Goa
Declaration
·
The 8th
BRICS summit concluded at Goa.
BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa (an association of five major emerging national economies)
·
Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC”
(or “the BRICs”),
·
South Africa introduced
in 2010.
·
BRICS comprises
over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world population ,a combined nominal GDP
of US$16.6 trillion- 22% of the world’s GDP.
·
BRICS original
aim: to discussions on economic issues of mutual interest. Overtime, the areas
of cooperation have widened to include topical global issues.
History of BRICS:
·
The political
origin of BRICS lay in the concept of a “strategic triangle” that was
articulated by the Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in the early
1990s.
·
Primakov wanted
Russia, China and India to blunt the edge of American power in the post-Cold
War world.
·
The term “BRIC” was coined in 2001 by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset
Management, Jim O’Neill, in his publication Building Better Global Economic
BRICs( later South Africa joined in 2010)
Highlights of BRICS
summit, 2016
·
The 8th BRICS summit was concluded at Goa.
·
Theme “Building Responsive,
Inclusive and Collective Solutions”
·
The next summit
will take place in China.
·
Outcome of the
summit was signed as ‘Goa Declaration’.
Key points of the declaration
·
On BIMSTEC – BRICS decided to hold an Outreach Summit
of BRICS Leaders with the Leaders of BIMSTEC member countries – Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral
Technical and Economic Cooperation comprising of Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
·
On UN Reform – China and Russia reiterated the
importance they attach to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa
in international affairs and support their aspiration to play a greater role in
the UN.
·
BRICS reaffirmed
the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council,
with a view to making it more representatives, effective and efficient, and to
increase the representation of the developing countries so that it can
adequately respond to global challenges.
·
On Syria – BRICS called upon all parties involved to
work for a comprehensive and peaceful resolution of the conflict taking into
account the legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria, through inclusive
national dialogue and a Syrian-led political process based on Geneva Communiqué of 30 June 2012 and in pursuance of the UN
Security Council Resolution 2254 and 2268 for their full implementation.
·
The declaration
called for resolution of the civil war in Syria, in accordance with the
“legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria” and sought action against U.N.-designated terrorist groups like IS and Jabhat al-Nusra.
·
On Palestine – The group reiterated the necessity
to implement the two-state solution of
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of
the relevant UNSC resolutions, the Madrid Principles and Arab Peace Initiative,
and previous agreements between the two sides, through negotiations aimed at
creating an independent, viable, territorially contiguous Palestinian State
living side-by-side in peace with Israel.
·
On Afghanistan – BRICS affirmed to support to the
efforts of the Afghan Government to achieve Afghan-led and Afghan-owned national
reconciliation and combat terrorism, and readiness
for constructive cooperation in order to facilitate security in Afghanistan,
promote its independent political and economic course, becoming free from
terrorism and drug trafficking.
·
On African Union– The group welcomed the African Union’s
(AU) vision, aspirations, goals and priorities for Africa’s development
enshrined in Agenda 2063, which is complementary with the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development.
·
On Climate – BRICS recognised that nuclear energy will
play a significant role for some of the BRICS countries in meeting their 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement commitments and for reducing global greenhouse gas
emissions in the long term.
·
On Terrorism – To address the threat of chemical
and biological terrorism, BRICS supports and emphasise the need for launching multilateral negotiations on an
international convention for the suppression
of acts of chemical and biological terrorism, including at the Conference on
Disarmament
·
BRICS
acknowledges that international
terrorism, especially the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Daesh) and affiliated terrorist groups and
individuals, constitute a global and unprecedented threat to international
peace and security.
·
It called upon
all nations to work together to expedite the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International
Terrorism (CCIT) in the UN General Assembly without any further delay.
·
Other Issues – The final statement also called for
all nations to counter radicalism, and block sources of financing international
terrorism, “including through
organised crime by means of money-laundering, drug trafficking, criminal activities, dismantling
terrorist bases and countering misuse of the Internet including social media by
terror entities through misuse of the latest Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs).
Source: The Hindu