The term’ BRIC’ was coined by Jim O’Neil, a British economist who was also the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.The term was introduced on 30th November 2001 and was coined to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
In the current time frame, BRICS acts on two pillars of cooperation-
- Consultation on issues of mutual interest through meetings of leaders and ministers
2. Cooperation through meeting of seniors officials in areas including trade, finance, health, education, technology, agriculture and IT.
The past decade has seen a growth in the role of our country in the global affairs. India has maintained good relations with Russia-China on one hand and with USA on the other and has a taken a lead in motivating BRICS along with working within the groups to take a strong action against terrorism by having brief consultations on various aspects related to it.
Honorable Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi also recently attended the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia. It was his sixth summit since he assumed office in 2014. Since, July 2014 in Fortaleza in Brazil, PM’s first multilateral summit after holding the office, the grouping has completed the first cycle during his regime in India.
BRICS has appeared to be the voice of developing countries. These countries face an aggressive club of developed countries, raising challenges on issues from WTO to climate change.New Delhi believes that the rights of the developing countries has to be protected by BRICS and the five BRICS countries are also members of G-20.
This year, in Brazil, the joint working group on counter terrorism has decided to place sub groups in five areas – terrorist financing, use of internet for terrorist purpose, countering radicalisation, the issue of foreign terrorist fighters and capacity building. India is supposed to chair the subgroup on the use of internet for terrorist purposes.
Prime Minister has also talked about strengthening and reforming the multilateral system. He has laid down the emphasis that when India calls for multilateralism, it is not a call to reinforce it but to reform it since this is what BRICS had originally set out to do.
The next BRICS submit will be held in India in 2021.
