By Manish Chand, IANS,
Brasilia : Challenging the existing global power structure, BRIC nations called for urgent reforms of the UN, wanted international financial institutions to accommodate aspirations of rising powers and pitched for including India and Brazil in an expanded UN Security Council.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held wide-ranging talks at Itamaraty Palace in the Brazilian capital soon after the IBSA summit of India, Brazil and South Africa.
The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) summit, scheduled to be held Friday, was advanced by a day as Hu had to cut short his trip due a massive earthquake in China.
A joint statement at the end of the day-long summit stressed the group’s intent to see a “multipolar, equitable and democratic world order”, a formulation that is set to worry the US as it views groupings like BRIC with suspicion.
Putting their collective economic weight behind the BRIC initiative, the four leaders made a vigorous pitch for the long-overdue reform of the UN and backed a greater role for India and Brazil in having a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
China and Russia are already permanent members of the Security Council along with the United State, France and Britain.
“In this respect, we reaffirm the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative, so that it can deal with today’s global challenges more effectively,” said the joint declaration at the end of the summit Thursday night.
“We reiterate the importance we attach to the status of India and Brazil in international affairs, and understand and support their aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations.”
Russia hosted the first BRIC summit in Yekaterinburg in June last year.
The leaders of BRIC countries, which account for 20 percent of global GDP, focused a large part of their discussions on setting the pace and direction of global economic recovery.
Manmohan Singh, on his part, cautioned the world against complacency and pitched for closer collaboration in interests of long-term recovery. India´s position was reflected in the joint declaration.
“We welcome the fact that the G-20 was confirmed as the premier forum for international economic coordination and cooperation of all its member states,” said the joint declaration.
“Compared to previous arrangements, the G-20 is broader, more inclusive, diverse, representative and effective,” they said.
“We advocate the need for the G-20 to be proactive and formulate a coherent strategy for the post-crisis period,” the BRIC leaders said, while underlining the need for reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, the IMF and the World Bank.
Referring to the recent resumption of economic growth in emerging markets, the four leaders said that “the foundation of world economic recovery is not yet solid, with uncertainties remaining”.
“We call upon all states to strengthen macroeconomic cooperation, jointly secure world economic recovery and achieve a strong, sustainable and balanced growth,” said the joint BRIC declaration.
The focus of the summit was on recasting the international political and economic order by the four countries whose economies are going to be the world’s biggest by 2050.
“BRIC countries have a fundamental role in the construction of a fairer international order,” the summit’s host, Lula da Silva, said at a press conference.
Manmohan Singh called the summit “very successful” and stressed that the BRIC grouping was uniquely placed to recast global order and to contribute to world economic growth and prosperity.
Medvedev added that the meeting showed “the BRIC format is becoming full-fledged and allows us to not only coordinate our efforts but to also make concrete decisions”.
They also decided to scale up economic cooperation and underlined the importance of maintaining relative stability of major reserve currencies and sustainability of fiscal policies in order to achieve a strong, long-term balanced economic growth.
The four leaders of top emerging economies also pushed hard for an early conclusion for an international convention to combat terrorism and wrapping up of the Doha round of international trade negotiations.
The BRIC countries include two of the largest energy producers and two of the largest consumers in the world.
“BRIC countries have an important role to play in the shaping the pace, direction and sustainability of global economic growth,” said the four leaders at the end of the day-long summit.
China will host the next edition of the BRIC summit.
Putting developmental aspirations of common people at the heart of the BRIC engagement, the four leaders of world´s top performing democracies also decided to scale up cooperation in areas ranging from science and technology, trade and investment, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure.