What is the full form of BRICS ?

Introduction

BRICS is an acronym for its member nations that include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This acronym was coined by Jim O’Neill, an economist from Goldman Sachs, as ‘BRICs’, who believed that by the end of 2050, these fast growing economies will lead the global economy. In 2010, South Africa was also added to this acronym after which it became BRICS. In this article we will briefly discuss BRICS.

Overview of BRICS

Under the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first BRICS Ministerial Meeting took place in New York on September 20, 2006, in conjunction with the UN General Assembly. The meeting was attended by the foreign ministers of China, Brazil, and Russia as well as the Indian Defence Minister. They expressed enthusiasm for boosting international cooperation. On Russia's initiative, Yekaterinburg hosted the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting on May 16, 2008. Following the summit, a Joint Communique was published that reflected shared viewpoints on current global development concerns.

A further significant step was made on July 9, 2008, when Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan, to discuss the Russian offer.

The inaugural BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg on June 16, 2009, at the initiative of Russia. Following the summit, the BRIC Leaders released an united statement. This declaration outlined BRIC's objectives. A consensus view of how to deal with the world financial and economic crisis was described in the document.

Until now BRICS conducted 14 summits since 2009. In the summits they have discussed the financial and economic crisis, launch of various cooperative institutions, agricultural development, establishment of BRICS bank, think tanks (eThekwini Declaration), sustainable growth, disarmament, anti-terrorism initiatives and many more.

BRICS Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism

During the 14th summit of BRICS the member nations called for immediate adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. This will be adopted according to the framework of the United Nations. Through this convention the member nations will take multilateral initiatives of combating terrorism, ensure disarmament with the aim of preventing chemical and biological terrorism.

Objectives of BRICS

BRICS is not an organisation but it exists in the form of summits that are held from time to time. Some of the objectives of BRICS include.

• It aims to broaden and intensify the coordination and cooperation among the member nations of BRICS with the goal of mutual benefit and equal and sustainable development.

• It tries to eliminate economic competition among member nations and rather tries to consider the growth and development of every member so that relationships can be built on the basis of economic strength.

• Focus on building BRICS into a political-diplomatic entity.

Impact on Global Financial Institution

BRICS plays a major role in influencing global financial institutions. It tries to reach financial stability and growth by building alternative financial institutions. Some of these include New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement and BRICS payment system.

Through the BRICS payment systems the BRICS want to create an alternative for the SWIFT system where SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial telecommunications. India, China and Russia already have an alternative to the SWIFT system. The reason behind creating this alternative is to have a backup system and create a global multilateral payment system which will be much more independent.

Conclusion

As Jim O’Neill suggested BRICS is indeed a group of fastest growing economies of the world. The combined GDP growth of BRICS nations is 179 percent and the combined trade of these nations is 16 percent. Hence, considering the individual development of its member nations we can say that BRICS is a very powerful initiative.

FAQs

Q1. What is a New Development Bank?

Ans: The New Development Bank (NDB) is an international institution founded by BRICS and its headquarter is located in Shanghai, China. The main goal of NDB is to raise money and resources for infrastructure and sustainable development initiatives in the field of agriculture, clean energy, etc.

Q2. What is Cognitive Reserve Arrangement?

Ans: Cognitive Reserve Arrangement was formed by BRICS in 2015. The main objective of this arrangement is to provide assistance to BRICS members currency problems and global liquidity pressures. This is considered a rival to the International Monetary Fund.

Q3. Discuss briefly the recent summit of BRICS.

Ans: The recent summit of BRICS was the ‘14th BRICS Summit’ hosted in 2022 in China. The theme for this summit was “Foster High quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in New Era for Global Development”.