Trump's new rules for how countries should treat him have led to the current breakdown in India-US relations, explains Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Pravin Gordhan, the finance minister of South Africa, says that in spite of several crucial issues still under debate, the BRICS bank was born today.
The deal fell through over unresolved disagreements over contentious issues, mainly on agriculture and automotive sector tariffs.
The RBI added roughly 3 tonnes in 2025, taking its gold reserves to 879 tonnes as of January 31, 2025.
Consensus remained elusive on a common BRICS currency as business leaders from the five-bloc nations debated the pivotal issue at a business forum on the periphery of a summit of the five-member bloc being hosted here by South Africa. In their two addresses at the Summit so far, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have made no or scant references to the issue either. "The BRICS Business Forum discussed the international payments system in detail. "Participants also debated the question of whether a BRICS currency is possible or desirable, with strong views expressed both for and against and little consensus reached," Sim Tshabalala, chief executive of Standard Bank Group, told several hundred captains of industry from the partner countries and over 40 other nations across the globe at the Summit.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the grouping.
The 5-nation BRICS group on signed an agreement to create a $100 billion pool of foreign-exchange reserves to help each other.
BRICS countries, including India, on Thursday voiced concern over the "fragile recovery" of global growth and the potential spillover effects from the "unconventional monetary policies" of the developed countries.
P K Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is currently serving as the principal secretary to the prime minister.
The agenda is to give a concrete shape to a Development Bank and pitch for reforms of the UN Security Council.
India expects to see the bank established as soon as possible.
Showing respect to the Indian flag, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday immediately picked up the tricolour placed on stage at a BRICS meeting here to mark the standing place of every leader so as not to step on it.
The Brics Development Bank was mooted at a summit in New Delhi in March this year as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund.
The BRICS nations on Friday underlined the need for using local currencies in international trade and financial transactions besides committing themselves to supporting rule-based open and transparent global trade. A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, also pressed for a robust Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced International Monetary Fund (IMF) at its centre. It further said the process of IMF governance reform under the 16th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula as a guide, should be completed by December 15, 2023.
'If gold's recent surge has increased its allocation beyond 15 per cent in your portfolio, now may be a good time to rebalance.'
'I don't think we have ever seen such alignment of everything that we need in the banking sector.'
The Summit could look at the possibility of starting credit facility in local currency by the BRICS Bank.
'It is unrealistic to expect that security dilemmas and strategic distrust to disappear or even diminish any time soon,' says Rup Narayan Das.
The bank, however, may not start functioning before 2014 and is likely to have substantially less initial paid-up capital than the amount of $240 billion that is doing the rounds currently.
The BRICS Summit tonight decided to establish the new development bank with an initial authorised capital of $100 billion.
South Africa's Deputy International Relations and Cooperation Minister Marius Fransman said this would give a major boost to some of the development needs of these countries.
With its political colour dominated by less than democratic trends, BRICS currently leaves some of us wondering -- where in this grouping is there an assurance that human freedom will be respected unconditionally? It would be nice to see the new members of BRICS drawn from the ranks of countries wedded to preserving and guarding human freedom, observes Shyam G Menon.
Asserting that it is for the first time that BRICS has taken a collective position on strengthening and reforming multilateral systems, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "We have to ensure that BRICS is more productive in the next 15 years".
The US involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East is a distraction which has to end quickly so that the main business of China can be focussed on. China is America's only peer competitor, not Russia and not anybody else. Therefore it makes little sense to be diverted from the overall mission, explains Aakar Patel.
The meeting will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, according to the MEA.
'To consider BRICS anything more than a temporary club with some common interests would be folly. The goal should be to induce others (Japan, ASEAN, South Africa) to align with us -- a non-threatening, democratic nation, rather than with malevolent China or waning America. For us to consider aligning with either China or the US would be absurd. India is just too big to be a sidekick,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The BRICS model will need to demonstrate the efficacy of a second alternative governance structure to reform the Bretton Woods legacy.
Government-owned banks lead the market by size in the BRIC countries -- accounting for 50 per cent of total banking sector assets in China, 40 per cent in Brazil and Russia and reaching 70 per cent in India.
'Happily,' says Ambassador B S Prakash, 'BRICS displayed new-found energy and built something real, a bank. Between needless nihilism and as yet unjustified euphoria, there are many stations for the BRICS train and we can watch its progress with renewed interest.'
India will place restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the national interest to ensure safeguards because of its location in a highly sensitive neighbourhood, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during an interactive session at the Wharton Business School in the US on Tuesday. "I cannot blindly accept FDI simply because we need investment, unmindful of where it is coming from. "We want business, we want investment, but we also need some safeguards, because India is located in a neighbourhood that is very, very sensitive," Sitharaman said.
China's intended role for AIIB is not so different from the existing Western lenders like the World Bank.
The PM said there was a need to tackle the problem of terrorism in an organised manner.
The members resolved to foster a global economic governance architecture that is more effective and reflective of current global economic landscape
Group still far from coordinating monetary/forex policy
China does not have to give up what it took in 2020, it will never give up its claim to Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and other areas, and it has all the time now to plan its next surprise, points out Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
The BRICS stressed on resolution of conflicts in a declaration issued after a virtual meeting of foreign ministers of the member nations of the grouping. The meeting was attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
'India has the potential to do a lot more to take advantage of the time today where we stand to gain, geopolitically and in terms of market attractiveness.'
'Many countries believe that if they join BRICS, they will be seen as emerging countries and their stature will be enhanced.' 'G-20 still has common action plans while BRICS does not do that much.'
Noting that India has 'limitless possibilities and countless opportunities', Modi urged the BRICS business leaders to take advantage of them.
Modi said a separate rating agency would help the economies of the member countries as well as other developing nations.
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