Topic Of The Day:-“BRICS Off The Wall”
At Copenhagen in 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders of the newly formed BASIC group (with Brazil and South Africa) were sitting in a conference room, negotiating a statement on the failure of the climate change summit. The group of emerging economies had been bolstered by the formation of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India and China, South Africa joined in 2010) with a declared objective of battling “Western hegemony”. The BASIC group had decided they would walk away from Copenhagen without a deal, unless the demands of emerging economies, which couldn’t afford the same emission cuts, were reflected. The scene, as described by Shyam Saran (then India’s chief climate negotiator) in a new book on Indian foreign policy, turned dramatic: with a knock on the conference room door, the U.S. team, led by then President Barack Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, barged into the meeting. After much back and forth, Mr. Wen and Dr. Singh accepted an American compromise on the wording of the drafts, and the Copenhagen accord went ahead.
The power of five
The event didn’t just change the course of international negotiations on global warming at the time, it heralded the arrival of emerging economies as a political force, and particularly the potential of the combined political clout of India and China. BRICS (BASIC was later disbanded) went from a modest 16-paragraph joint statement at Yekaterinburg in June 2009 to the more substantive 110 paragraphs that the five countries agreed upon in the Goa Declaration of October 2016, developing common positions not just on climate change but also on terrorism, energy, and world politics.Over time, it no longer met with sneers and references, like being called the “Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept” by one investment banker, or the group of “paper tigers”, a reference to the fact that the term BRIC was coined in a paper by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill in 2001. The valuation of the BRICS grouping, that represents 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of its growth at $17 trillion, also did well, with more and more investment being driven into the five economies, mainly led by India and China. Not only did the BRICS countries better their positions in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, they also struck a small blow against Bretton Woods institutions, and the BRICS New Development Bank set up in 2015 has already given out about $6 billion in loans for 23 projects across BRICS countries. This is no mean feat given the vast differences in size and political systems, and internal turmoil in BRICS countries.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Bolstered
Meaning: Support or strengthen.
Example: The fall in interest rates is starting to bolster confidence.
Synonyms: Strengthen, Support
Antonyms: Undermine
2) Hegemony
Meaning: Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.
Example: Germany was united under Prussian hegemony after 1871.
Synonyms: Leadership, Dominance
Antonyms: Self-government
3) Heralded
Meaning: Be a sign that (something) is about to happen.
Example: The speech heralded a change in policy.
Synonyms: Signal, Indicate
4) Clout
Meaning: Influence or power, especially in politics or business.
Example: I knew she carried a lot of clout.
Synonyms: Influence, Power
5) Ridiculous
Meaning: Deserving or inviting derision or mockery; absurd.
Example: That ridiculous tartan cap.
Synonyms: Laughable, Absurd
Antonyms: Serious
