BRICS – Goa Declaration 2016

BRICS – Goa Declaration

·       The 8^th 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 8^th 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