India has said it was under pressure from some developing nations to accept the Copenhagen Accord prepared at the UN meet on climate change last month at the Danish Capital.
At Copenhagen, attempts to arrive at a fair deal on climate change were deadlocked with countries refusing to budge from their positions on sticky issues like emission cuts. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who is leading the Indian delegation, said the BASIC group -- comprising India, China, South Africa and Brazil -- "is united and we would like to reiterate that we want an equitable and fair agreement to emerge out of the summit".
Consensus eluded negotiators on Wednesday to stitch an equitable and just accord on climate change in the last lap before the summit on Friday with no headway being made to iron out sticking points on carbon emission cuts, mitigation targets and long-term financing.
The G20's Bali Declaration Wednesday acknowledged differences among members on the Russia-Ukraine war but said it was essential to adhere to international law, including protection of civilians caught in conflicts.
Raking up the border issue, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said every individual in Ladakh knows that China has "taken away our land" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that not an inch of land was taken away was "absolutely false".
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon arrived in Beijing on Sunday to attend a meeting of G-8 'outreach countries', becoming the first top Indian diplomat to visit China since the outbreak of the Tibet unrest. The G-5 meeting in Bejing is a multilateral consultation exercise on economic and trade issues and climate change, among others, that major developing nations wish to take up with G-8. Menon is expected to meet Chinese officials and discuss the of bilateral issues.
'The future of BRICS is under stress as Chinese attempts to expand the platform are being resisted by India and Brazil.' 'Beijing is focused on a quick expansion with the aim of giving the platform a distinctly anti-Western orientation, which New Delhi and Brasilia seem to have no interest in,' notes Harsh V Pant.
India announced its intention to acquire S-400 'Triumf' surface-to-air missile systems in 2015. The contract worth $5.43 billion was signed during the visit of President Putin to India last year.
The 5-nation BRICS group on signed an agreement to create a $100 billion pool of foreign-exchange reserves to help each other.
India working towards devising strategies to reduce global warming.
By proposing the addition of six permanent members this year, it may appear that it was a major concession, but in actual fact, it will make no difference to the privilege of the permanent five as the new six will have no veto, ever! points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'I was a bit startled when our host spoke with such force and at such great length about Terrorism.' 'Where did that come from?' 'He kept insisting that it comes from across the border.' 'I could not remember who all are across India's borders and was looking puzzled, but Zuma who understood my predicament, whispered "Pakistan".'
PM stressed that 'response to terrorism must be nothing less than comprehensive'.
India and South Africa on Friday agreed to deepen engagement in key areas of defence production, manufacturing, mining and minerals and combating terrorism.
The PM said there was a need to tackle the problem of terrorism in an organised manner.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reiterated that the situation at the India-China border is generally stable and both sides should consolidate the present achievements and strictly abide by the relevant agreements while pushing for further cooling and easing of the conditions for sustainable peace and tranquillity at the frontier.
'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.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China believes that state-to-state interactions should be in line with the trend of the time which is peace and development rather than exclusivity.
A feature of this year's BRICS summit was economic cooperation.
New Delhi has reached out to neighbours like seldom before while singling Islamabad for criticism at international forums.
India will have the presidency of the BRICS' $100 billion New Development Bank for six years with headquarters in China that will become operational in about two years, a major step for reshaping the international financial system dominated by the West.
BRICS countries may reach consensus at next month's G20 summit on creating a $100 billion currency reserve fund to help ease short-term liquidity pressure and safeguard financial stability of major emerging economies, a senior Chinese central bank official said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday termed the BRICS as 'Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions'.
Biden and Xi shook hands and greeted each other with smiles, standing in front of a row of US and Chinese flags.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday underlined the need for not promoting any restrictions on the supply of energy and called for ensuring stability while once again emphasising on resolving the Ukraine conflict through diplomacy.
Both nations have to find ways to be sensitive to each other's politico-strategic and economic concerns, say Dr Rahul Mishra and Sana Hashmi.
India would not be seen to be anything but rude with the Pakistanis. In the big picture, who is the bigger adversary right now? Who is the bigger pain in the neck? And who is it that is keeping more than 3,000 km of our borders active, throwing our military posture and deployments into imbalance? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Extending its support to Saarc Bank, Sri Lanka on Thursday said the proposed financial institution will help in alleviating poverty in the South Asian region.
President Xi said that the Chinese side is ready to work with the Indian side to carry forward the fresh impetus of bilateral relations.
China's Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong again harped on the need to build consensus over the admission of new members in the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Modi also urged the BRICS Business Council to create a roadmap to achieve the $500 billion intra-BRICS trade target by the next summit.
The regulatory changes brought in by the insurance regulator and the amendments proposed to the Insurance Act by the Centre may herald a new dawn for the sector in India. This may result in insurers bringing out more consumer-led products, top honchos of general insurance companies of the country concurred at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2022.
Modi said India and Russia have been friends for a long time and thanked Putin for inviting him for the first-ever informal meeting at Sochi.
Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed were named on Monday in the Summit declaration of the BRICS countries.
Opposition leaders urged Modi to use the opportunity for the country's benefit.
'It is unrealistic to expect that security dilemmas and strategic distrust to disappear or even diminish any time soon,' says Rup Narayan Das.
He said China was exercising sovereignty in its own territory.
The Congress and AAP said the logo looks like the party symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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