Vasu Pachnanda
The ninth BRICS summit witnessed yet another quintessential display of India’s dexterous Diplomatic expression, with several key takeaways that reiterate India’s emergence as a formidable global power, with its position being indisputably acknowledged on a multitude of global platforms, BRICS being the very latest.
The way in which India exercised its diplomatic acumen, in keeping aside bilateral differences but making no compromise in extracting multilateral cooperation and a settled understanding on various factors that could probably fuel India’s impressive growth matrix even further and provide it the much needed impetus to its economic prowess, by facilitating trade and cooperation amid the BRICS members, has come up as a clear vindication of Modi Government’s mantra of a constructive and inclusive economy to some extent.
Though the summit in its inception was characterized by a tense note, with the two Asian giants having recently negotiated a solution to the two month drawn border standoff in the Dokalam area, amid a series of warmongering and rogue gimmicks of psychological warfare resorted by Beijing, further disrupting Bilateral equation between the two countries, it was an apt instance of astute diplomacy by both the parties, especially India in relegating mutual differences to the background and adopting a “forward looking” multilateral approach in furthering and safeguarding the economic and strategic interests of their respective countries.
Whereas both the neighbors acknowledged that it was in their best interest to maintain good bilateral understanding, India stuck firm to its assertion of Peace and Tranquility at the border areas as a pre-requisite for any fruitful bilateral engagement in the future.
Further India also put forth a suggestion of deepening the military level dialogue and bilateral engagement so as to abate any further instances like Doklam in the near future, and as it was rightly put forth, ” in preventing differences from becoming disputes.”
Moreover, many overt gestures from the Chinese side as a reiteration that a Beijing wanted peace and not confrontation were buttressed by it agreeing to India’s demand of inclusion of two Pak- based terror outfits, in the joint declaration of BRICS, and such a move by China was a gesture in the right direction proclaiming that its intention to “move on” after a stretch of bitterness.
While this could be seen as a move unique in itself, it isnt any short of a diplomatic victory for India considering its persistence and firmness with which it pursued the entire matter, has finally come to fruition. This too can be said falling as a consequence of President Donald Trump’s recent diatribe against Pakistan, condemning its harboring of terror and its allowance for breeding terror grounds that run rife within its borders. China which has always sided with Islamabad may have affected such an inclusion in the declaration from all the criticism it has attracted for providing implied support to Pakistan, consciously turning a blind eye to its terror programmes for its selfish geo-strategic interests.
But such move clearly comes as a vindication of India’s stand on Islamabad, and could go a long way in ameliorating the bilateral equation between Delhi and Beijing given the fact that such a denouncement of terror activities of such groups have upped the ante against terrorism and may help in somewhat countering and exposing Pak militant settings in the Valley.
Further the embarrassment that it brings to Islamabad can also not be ignored, after Beijing somewhat aligned to India’s say against terror. But a mere reading of the practical facet of this entire instance can also be linked to China’s effort to woe New Delhi into accepting the ambitious One belt One road initiative, the support to which is withheld by New Delhi on the basis of many factors, sovereignty issues and transparency concerns dominating the reservations that Delhi has against China’s economic corridor.
Further upsetting a partner as valuable as India, that could drive out the much needed impetus that China earns from the Indian markets is also seen as a reason why Beijing could not afford to create animosity with New Delhi.
Further, the fact that New Delhi stressed upon needed to spur growth, promote Transparency and support sustainable development goals and the need for scaling up cooperation in skill development and exchange of best practices were some of the key takeaways from the imperative Summit that fell in close proximity with PM’s stated mission to eradicate Poverty, ensure Health, sanitation, skills, food security, gender equality energy and education.
He also reiterated the need for a strong partnership among member states on innovation technology and digital economy that could bolster growth, promote transparency and help achieve sustainable development goals. Suggestions for speeding up of creation of a BRICS credit rating agency and the finalization of its roadmap at the earliest was asserted to help BRICS nations further their development objectives with a renewed vigor.
Stress was also laid on the complementary skills of the five countries and their strength to promote renewable and solar energy for further realization of their development.
Thus while the Indian regime can be credited for having brought the entire BRICS on the same footing with regard to their interpretation of terror disbursed from Pakistan soil, the fact that domestic challenges weren’t allowed to encumber multilateral cooperation in the field, especially of economics and trade goes a long way in resurrecting faith in Indian Diplomacy and its way of effectively tackling the issues at the right forum and when time demands.
The objective of the BRICS, which provided a forum for the non OECD leaders to come together and discuss global challenges and coordinate their actions within and outside global institutions considering the fact that the US and the Europe are over represented in the IMF and the World bank and tend to control, along with Japan, most of the regional development banks, weren’t forgotten at the BRICS summit this year too, with members professing to increase their engagement across a spectrum of economic and strategic engagements that could embolden their position in the global arena, keeping aside the regional and domestic differences among themselves.
The formation of the BRICS bank was in this context a step in the right direction aggravating the growth potential of the developing economies and endowing them with the space they rightfully deserve in the global scenario.
Thus, on a concluding note this BRICS summit witnessed a hope in the optimism and the potential that binds BRICS nations together despite their narrow regional and strategic differences and paves way for a world that isn’t imbalanced or drifting towards uncertainty.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel