It has led to the creation of a make-believe world. This is evident when leaders from the four countries, along with Jacob Zuma of South Africa—whose country now forms the capital “S”— met at Sanya in China. The statements of the leaders and a communiqué gave a hint of that. It was couched in the language of economic concerns: reforms at institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, dangers of commodity price volatility and taking potshots at the dollar as an international reserve currency. In reality, the subject is political, for global monetary reform and other steps advocated by these leaders transcend economics. The five also called for close coordination and cooperation in global affairs among them.

This is the stuff of dreams. It is not difficult to build blocs on the foundations of shared ideas and this has been done in the past. Non-alignment brought together a large number of diverse countries. The Cold War led to the emergence of blocs based on opposition/approval to communism. BRICS, however, lack any cementing ideology save a mild form of anti-Americanism. Even that is deceptive: It is on display only at some meetings, while in real life each one has tried to build a special relationship with the US. In bilateral terms, the group’s bonhomie can’t hide the deep antagonism between some of them. India’s relations with China and those of Russia with China need no elaboration.

One way to foster closer ties would have been to focus on closer economic cooperation before pushing for stronger political ties. Instead there is an element of conflict in their pursuit of economic interests. India and China compete for raw material such as oil and gas across the globe. Russia and Brazil owe no small part of their prosperity to export of hydrocarbons whose prices they would like to remain high. While there is ample trade between India and China and China and Brazil this is missing among others in the group. As the group stands now, any coherence in the long run is likely to prove elusive. All five have individual ambitions that leave little glue to bind them. For now, it is best if the bundling of the five alphabets remains in the world of acronyms.

In a boost to Indian efforts at obtaining a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group for the first time called for 'comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council'. In the last summit in Brasilia, the declaration had stopped short of specifying the UNSC. According to Indian officials, this represented a step forward on the part of the Chinese to endorse the aspirations of India, Brazil and South Africa for permanent membership of the UNSC.

The Sanya declaration also underscores the concurrent presence of all five BRICS countries in the present UNSC as 'a valuable opportunity to work closely issues of peace and security'. Further, in the context of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, leaders of the five countries reaffirmed their support for nuclear energy as an 'important element in the future energy mix of BRICS countries'. At the same time, they called for paying more attention to safety standards.

'International cooperation in the development of safe nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should proceed under conditions of strict observance of relevant safety standards and requirements concerning design, construction and operation of nuclear power plants,” stated the declaration.

The five leaders — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff and South African President Jacob Zuma — also held detailed deliberations on the global economic situation and felt that while the world may have largely come out of the economic crisis, further consolidation is still needed.

Through this discussion, it was agreed that the financial crisis had “exposed the inadequacies of the existing international monetary system, with a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty'.

The Chinese contention to focus on Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as an alternative got more attention with the five countries agreeing to discuss the possibility of expanding the basket of currencies in the SDRs to make it a viable option. It may be noted that China is keen to have the Yuan included in this basket. 'We welcome the current discussion about the role of the SDR in the existing international monetary system including the composition of SDR's basket of currencies,' stated the declaration.

While China looks at BRICS as a way to enhance its global prestige, India, Brazil and South Africa would like to use this opportunity to raise the problem of trade imbalance with China. It may be recalled that India had brought up this issue with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit last December. Most of these countries are concerned by the bilateral trade balance being hugely in favour of China and in case of India, the worry is also that Indian companies find it difficult to expand business there.

India is keen to achieve some coordination on this front to obtain some assurances and commitments from China to its BRICS partners in order to create a level-playing and transparent trade environment. One of the objectives, sources said, would be to have a progressive conversation with China in a more equal setting involving all the major emerging economies.

Politically, the grouping is expected to endorse common positions on a range of issues including the opening up of top positions in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to other countries outside North America and Europe. They will also taking joint positions on economic issues in the G-20 when it meets in France in November this year. (IPA Service)