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BRICS lauded as vital to global governance following Goa Summit

Author  :  Mao Li     Source  :    Chinese Social Sciences Today     2016-11-02

Weighing in on a recent BRICS summit, scholars said that the bloc has become a vital force for improving global economic governance and promoting the democratization of international relations.

The Plenary Session of the Eighth BRICS Summit was held in Goa, India, from Oct. 15 to 16. It marks the 10th year of BRICS cooperation since the first BRICS foreign ministers meeting in 2006.

In the past 10 years, the BRICS nations have made remarkable strides in terms of mechanism building and pragmatic cooperation. The bloc is starting to show a greater capacity for collective action, according to a report from a BRICS research group co-founded by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and the University of Toronto in Canada.

Released on Oct. 12, the 2015 BRICS Ufa Summit Compliance Report assesses the progress of member nations toward meeting the 130 commitments made at last year’s summit in Russia, with a special emphasis on nine of them. The report found that BRICS compliance scores averaged 72 percent for the five summits from 2011 to 2015, while member states registered a slight improvement on targets from the Ufa Summit, reaching 78 percent.

Ravi Sawhney, dean of the Center for Defense Studies at the Vivekananda International Foundation in India, called attention to the huge economic size and potential of the BRICS nations, saying that closer cooperation between the members will be conducive to world peace, stability and prosperity.

The BRICS nations have committed to creating new sources of economic growth in recent years, said Xu Xiujun, deputy director of the Research Division of International Political Economics at the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Currently, BRICS’s adjustments to domestic economic reform and foreign cooperation strategies are showing early results. “BRICS remains the veritable bellwether of emerging markets and developing countries, and constitutes the ballast for sustained world economic growth and stable recovery,” Xu said.

Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the success of BRICS has set an example for collaboration among countries with different social systems, development models and cultural values.

After a decade of rapid development, BRICS cooperation continues to expand through improved mechanisms. A turning point for the cooperation mechanism, the Goa Summit has made a series of fresh achievements that promote pragmatic BRICS cooperation. “BRICS cooperation has become even more practical and deeper,” said Gao Shangtao, an associate professor from the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University.

The common desire for better global governance is a crucial force driving deeper BRICS cooperation. Over the past 10 years, the countries concerned have worked together to raise the status of BRICS in the global governance system.

“By coordinating stances and working in unity, BRICS has generated a considerable impact on such frameworks as the United Nations, the G20 and the International Monetary Fund,” Gao said.

While BRICS members have proposed sweeping reforms of existing international financial institutions, they have also fostered new ones to reform the global system incrementally. The New Development Bank of BRICS and Contingent Reserve Arrangements have significantly contributed to global economic growth and reinforced international financial architecture. “They are useful supplements to current multilateral financial institutions,” Sawhney said.

Editor: Ma Yuhong

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