14th BRICS Summit

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi led India’s participation at the 14thBRICS Summit, convened under the Chairship of President Xi Jinping of China , in a virtual format.President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa also participated in the Summiton .Theme of the 14th BRICS Summit: Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development.

Key Highlights of the Summit

• It states that BRICS supports talks between Russia and Ukraine.
• The grouping is willing to support the United Nations’ and the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine.Countries also expressed concerns about the situation in Taliban-held Afghanistan.

BRICS

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• In 2001, the British Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers’ in
• South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS.
• The BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41% of the global population, 24% of the global GDP and 16% of the global trade.

Chairmanship

• The chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
• India is the chair for

Initiatives of the BRICS

1.New Development Bank

• During the Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza (Brazil) in 2014, the leaders signed the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB – Shanghai, China).
• It has so far approved 70 infrastructure and sustainable development projects worth.

2.Contingent Reserve Arrangement

• In 2014, the BRICS governments had signed a treaty on the setting up of the contingent reserve arrangement
• The arrangement is aimed at forestalling short-term balance of payments pressures, provide mutual support and strengthen financial stability of the BRICS nations.

3.BRICS Payment System

• BRICS countries are trying to create a payment system as an alternative to the SWIFT payment system.
• This has taken on a new urgency as post Ukraine war, Russia has been frozen out of SWIFT.

4.Customs Agreements

• Customs agreement were signed to coordinate and ease trade transport between BRICS countries

5.Launched of Remote Sensing Satellite

• A Remote Sensing constellation of satellites has been launched – with 6 satellites including 2 from India, 2 from China, 1 from Russia, and 1 Brazil-China collaboration

Discussions on the Issues

• Humanitarian Situation in Ukraine
• Terrorism
• Initiative on Denial of Safe Haven to Corruption
• Framework for Consumer Protection in E-commerce
• More Focus on Combating Transnational Drug Trafficking