New Delhi, Delhi
Ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit, which will be held in India on September 12 and 13, differing views have emerged within the Congress party over the significance of the global grouping. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has questioned the concrete benefits India has gained from recent BRICS meetings, while Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has described India’s hosting of the summit as an important diplomatic opportunity.
Chidambaram said that he had not seen any significant tangible benefits or concrete outcomes for India from the last two or three BRICS summits. He also questioned the value India has derived from its participation in several multilateral platforms, including BRICS, the G20, the Quad and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, arguing that there should be a discussion on what these groupings have actually delivered for the country.
In contrast, Shashi Tharoor linked BRICS to India’s diplomatic capabilities and described it as an important platform for the Global South. According to Tharoor, India has an opportunity to bring different countries together on a common platform and advance dialogue on issues of global importance.
India is chairing BRICS this year and will host the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 12 and 13. The theme of India’s BRICS chairmanship is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
BRICS currently comprises 11 countries. According to official figures, the grouping represents approximately 49.5 percent of the world’s population, 40 percent of global GDP and 26 percent of global trade.
However, differences within the grouping remain a major challenge. At the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in May, member countries failed to reach consensus on a joint statement, forcing India, as chair, to issue a chair’s statement instead. Against this backdrop, building consensus at the upcoming summit is expected to be a significant diplomatic test for India.
