The BRICS Handover Report: 2015-2016

The key event of the Russian BRICS Chairmanship (April 2015–February 2016) has been the Summit in Ufa on 8–9 July 2015 under the theme ‘BRICS Partnership – a Powerful Factor of Global Development’. The Summit adopted the Ufa Declaration, the Ufa Action Plan and the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership, establishing major goals and areas for BRICS future development. The heads of relevant agencies of the five countries signed the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Culture and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Creation of the Joint BRICS Website. The Russian Side initiated the preparation of a Roadmap for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation until 2020.

The BRICS leaders’ meeting on the margins of the G20 Summit in Antalya reaffirmed the BRICS countries’ common determination to consolidate their unity in devising joint responses to global challenges. A major practical achievement under the Russian Chairmanship was the launch of the New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, which aim to promote greater stability and sustainability of the global financial system and to enhance economic and investment cooperation. BRICS is not only about the economy. An important priority within its activities is the strengthening of global security and stability.

BRICS has been increasingly focusing on intensifying cooperation in countering new challenges and threats, particularly terrorism. A substantial discussion on objectives in this area took place during the National Security Advisors meeting in Moscow on 26 May 2015. Over the past period, the dialogue between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs / International Relations has been actively developing. On the margins of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York a meeting of the BRICS Foreign Ministers, which has already become traditional, was held on 29 September 2015, reaffirming closeness and unity of participating countries’ approaches to the maintenance of international peace and security. A mechanism for consultations at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers in charge of the MENA region (Moscow, 22 May 2015) has been launched. There are now newly created frameworks for meetings on foreign policy planning (Moscow, 15 May 2015), prevention of an arms race in outer space (Moscow, 20 May 2015) and peacekeeping (Moscow, 11 December 2015), as well as between legal departments of the BRICS Foreign Ministries (New York, 2 November 2015).

Under the Russian BRICS Chairmanship a whole range of targeted measures has been adopted in order to enhance, diversify and institutionalize cooperation. BRICS inaugural events were held in new sectoral areas, such as environmental protection (Moscow, 22 April 2015), youth policy (Kazan, 4 July 2015), migration (Sochi, 8 October 2015), industry (Moscow, 20 October 2015), telecommunications (Moscow, 22–23 October 2015), energy (Moscow, 19–20 November 2015), international development assistance (Moscow, 7 December 2015), labour and employment (Ufa, 25–26 January 2016).