Context: The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries discussed the COVID pandemic, the situation in Afghanistan, and counter-terrorism on Thursday as India chaired the 13th Summit via video conference.

• Speaking at the Summit, PM Modi thanked all the partnering nations saying that India has received full cooperation from all members during its chairship of BRICS.  
• Brazil President Jair Bolsanaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the virtual meeting. The theme for the Summit was 'BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS cooperation for continuity, consolidation, and consensus'
• In this edition of Big Picture, we analyze the key takeaways from the 13th BRICS summit.

PM’s Address

• Highlighted the achievement of several new initiatives during India's Chairship this year (2021), i.e. an Agreement on cooperation in the field of remote-sensing satellites; a virtual BRICS vaccine Research & Development Centre; BRICS Alliance on Green Tourism, etc.
• Highlighting the leading role that BRICS countries can play in the post-Covid global recovery, Prime Minister called for enhanced BRICS cooperation under the motto of 'Build-back Resiliently, Innovatively, Credibly and Sustainably'.

Adopted BRICS Counter Terrorism Action Plan

• It defines the approach and actions of the BRICS countries towards areas of Counter Terrorism cooperation which includes: Countering Radicalization and Online Terrorist Threats, Border Management, Information/ Intelligence Sharing, etc.

Adopted Delhi Declaration

• The declaration called for reforms of the principal organs of the United Nations including that of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
• It is the first time that BRICS has taken a collective position on 'Strengthening and Reforming Multilateral Systems’.
• It also called for an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue” for stability in Afghanistan.
• Apart from Afghanistan, the BRICS leaders also took up the conflicts in Myanmar, Syria, the tension in the Korean peninsula, Israel-Palestine violence and other territorial disputes.

On Covid-19

• Noted the proposal made by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) mechanism to ensure a rapid expansion of the Covid-19 vaccine production around the world.

BRICS

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• In 2001, the British Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
• The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers’ in 2006.
• South Africa was invited to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the group adopted the acronym BRICS.
• The BRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 27% of World Arena; 42% of world population; 23% of World GDP; and over 17% share in world trade.
• The chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
• India is the chair for 2021.
• During the Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza (Brazil) in 2014, the leaders signed the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB - Shanghai, China). They also signed the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement to provide short-term liquidity support to the members.

Road Ahead

• Considering that each of the country in the grouping has some issue or the other, the 13th BRICS summit was as successful as any other BRICS summit has been. The declaration was good but everything may not fluctify. The BRICS was developed as counter to the West and their dominance at multilateral forums 2005-06. However, things have changed due to an antagonistic China, there was a need for BRICS when it started about 15 years ago but now it's headed towards irrelevance. The grouping will continue though as these countries themselves came together to make something happen let's hope for the best while keeping our expectations low.