Russia’s BRICS chairmanship: The 2020 summit and challenges ahead

At a time when the global system is in flux, BRICS members have found it relevant to continue to explore areas of cooperation, especially as the new world order is yet to be formed. Yet, the BRICS 2020 summit did nothing to quell questions about its future course of action in light of several challenges.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s President Xi Jinping, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the 2019 BRICS Summit.

• BRICS 2020
• Covid-19
• Investment Cooperation
• US-China

The 2020 BRICS Summit was held virtually amidst the COVID-19 pandemic under the chairmanship of Russia, which adopted the motto for the year as ‘BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth.’ At the end of the 2019 summit in Brazil, President Vladimir Putin had declared that special attention would be paid to “expanding foreign policy coordination between our states on key international platforms, primarily at the UN.” Another goal was to update the strategy for economic partnership signed in 2015 and formulate a strategy that will set the agenda for BRICS cooperation till 2025.

The achievement of these goals in 2020 took place in the
backdrop of the pandemic, which has hastened the upending of the post-Cold War order.

These goals also form part of broader Russian strategic objectives towards BRICS, which include reforming the prevailing institutions of economic governance, pursuing a multi-vector policy and expanding foreign policy cooperation with BRICS members, and to use these measures to strengthen the international position of the country. The achievement of these goals in 2020 took place in the backdrop of the pandemic, which has hastened the upending of the post-Cold War order. The impact of this development on BRICS as an organisation and on its stated aims can hardly be underestimated.

Key documents

In a step forward, the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025 was signed, having been up for review at the end of a five-year period. Focusing on three priority areas — trade, investment and finance; digital economy; and sustainable development — it seeks to chart out the future course of action for BRICS economic cooperation. It is clear why these three areas were chosen, having also formed an integral part of the previous strategy developed in 2015, reflecting the future economic priorities and focus areas of memberstates.

Focusing on three priority areas — trade, investment and finance; digital economy; and sustainable development — it seeks to chart out the future course of action for BRICS economic cooperation.

The adoption of the strategy does indicate a commitment to carry forward the existing cooperation between members on areas like promoting cooperation among businesses of BRICS countries; reforming of WTO, IMF and World Bank; advancing the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA); and strengthening the New Development Bank (NDB). Other areas include innovation and technology, challenges of digitalisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, sustainable development, climate change, energy, infrastructure development and food security. The coordination of Russia with Brazil, India and China over tests and production of COVID-19 vaccines has been presented as a win for intra-BRICS coordination. Also, the NDB
setting aside $10 billion to help members deal with the cost of the coronavirus crisis has been an important development for the bank at a time when discussions about the expansion of its membership are gathering steam.

While these are all areas of concern for BRICS, where cooperation is seen to be beneficial and, indeed, the economic and financial sector is the core area where the organisation has had the most success through institutionalisation of mechanisms like NDB and CRA, the short to medium term is hardly expected to be a smooth ride. For instance, while China has called upon BRICS states to build cooperation on “digital transformation, especially in 5G, AI, the digital economy and others,” India has since the recent border clashes set out to prevent Chinese telecoms from participating in its 5G trials. In the aftermath of India-China border tensions earlier in 2020, India has ruled that for any FDI originating from a country that shares its border, government approval will be mandatory citing national security concerns. This means that all investments from China will have to go through this route, even though the BRICS strategy calls for strengthening investment cooperation. By July, this had already led to about 200 Chinese proposals being left pending before the Indian home ministry.