Author: VK
Last week in Durban (South Africa) the fifth summit of BRICS was held. Following the meeting, declaration and action plan were adopted. The declaration gives an assessment of the current global political and economic situation, reflects the common approaches of BRICS on multilateral cooperation. The Action Plan specifies the BRICS work for the coming year, and also includes new and promising areas of cooperation. In the presence of the BRICS leaders agreements on cooperation in the field of "green economy", co-financing of infrastructure projects in Africa, and the Declaration on the establishment of the Business Council of BRICS were signed. Despite strong statements and signed documents, the leaders of the "big five" of the non-Western world have failed to move beyond dialogue format and make a real step to meet their key objective - the creation of "a full-length mechanism for strategic cooperation." According to Kommersant, the attempt to establish BRICS Development Bank in Durban designed to undermine the dominance of the IMF and the World Bank failed. Due to the disagreements the forum members were forced to admit that the project would require additional study.
It is fair to say that the Russian experts had little hope for the summit. “The theme of the academic forum and of the summit is the BRICS and the African continent”, Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the National Committee for BRICS Research, said. “For the first time the summit theme is focused on the problems primarily attributable to the continent… It's no secret that Western perceptions BRICS quite cautious. It is often said that it is either reactionary or unwanted contrast to the West, or there are too different countries and the BRICS is not possible, the BRICS are countries that are experiencing big problems and pull each other's back instead of pulling forward. Nevertheless, of course, in the modern world the BRICS serves as the engine of development. And if the global economy, if the pace of development of the BRICS countries themselves is slowing down, it is not because they do something wrong, but because they have to drag all the heavy structure, in which some of the cars pull the system back, including, among other things, the Western economy.
Commenting on the institutionalization of the BRICS, Nikonov said: “At present, it is not even clear how to call this structure. This is not an alliance, of course. This is not an organization. This is a form of cooperation, the format of which becomes, in my opinion, more and more important in today's world”. At the last summit, the creation of the virtual secretariat of the BRICS was discussed. I think, in general, it is time to create some real mechanism consisting not only of the Sherpas but at least of some administration.
Speaking about the bank of the BRICS, Nikonov said: “This is a rather difficult process, but the fundamental decision, to my knowledge, has been made. And it will be a bank that will not only serve the BRICS countries, but will also act as the Bank of Reconstruction and Development such as the EBRD or IMF. It is possible that the bank can assist in situations such as the one in Cyprus now, when some countries may need a serious foreign aid. The BRICS countries are the states which now have money, unlike Western countries, which are experiencing serious debt problems”.
As for the problem of expanding the BRICS, according to Nikonov, “at the present time deepening cooperation within BRICS is more important. Although now there are 25 formats of cooperation, which are named in the Delhi Declaration of last year, however, deepening and institutionalization of cooperation is more important than the expansion, though the list of candidates is quite wide, and it is still growing. As for those countries that traditionally have shown interest in cooperating with the BRICS (Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey), Egypt has recently joined them; the president of Egypt said that in some distant future, if the country gets on its feet, it also would like to join the club of BRICS”.
“The BRICS is an innovative structure in the contemporary international scene”, Vladimir Davydov, director of the Latin American Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, said. “I do not see any other groups which would be developed in such a format. I think we can say that the BRICS largely meets this new trend of network diplomacy. New group actively engages in its orbit not only government agencies but also non-governmental organizations. The point is that the BRICS is addressed to civil society of all the members. This is a huge advantage, but probably it has its drawbacks. I think that so far we have in the history of the BRICS six years, and we have done a great job. But at the same time BRICS is developing extensively. It involves an increasingly wide range of topics, it involves more ministries, departments, public and scientific organizations, it works on the academic front, it works on the front of the parliamentary, as now. Summits are accompanied by Business Forums. However, perhaps the issue of institutionalization is the question of ordering, the question is still to finally decide on the model. And from this point of view, the BRICS should solve the problem of self-determination. It must show the world a new type of international organizations, international associations. Because the mission, as it relates to the challenges of today, the transitional period, is very serious. If the BRICS can not find an adequate answer, I think that this will soon enough discredit the organization. Members full of political will to carry on and develop this project do not tend to lose momentum. From this point of view, I think that the South African summit brings a certain result. This is the stage of setting. And it should open stage of what I would call, perhaps, not entirely successfully, the self-determination of the BRICS, the institutionalization of BRICS. I think the theme of the BRICS is historically due to the fact that the old system of global governance, and the last global economic crisis - the old system, in fact, is not functioning, and it did not take into account the interests of the new centers of the world economy and world politics. Therefore, the BRICS is called upon to find a new equilibrium, or say otherwise, the lost balance in the modern international system. This is very serious, I would say to some extent epochal, historical mission. Responsibility is very high. And if there is a very high responsibility, we must be very serious about the mechanism of BRICS, build the internal structure of BRICS, the system of relations with other, in today's terms, actors of international relations”.
