Modi says BRICS must avoid being anti-West group as it grows

Thursday 24 Oct 2024

(Oct 24): India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said BRICS shouldn’t project itself as an alternative to global organisations, even as founding members like Russia and China try to expand the group to challenge the US-led global order.

“We must be careful to ensure that this organisation does not acquire the image of one that is trying to replace global institutions,” Modi said at a closed plenary session of the BRICS leaders’ summit in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday. The group should work to reform institutions like the United Nations Security Council and multilateral lenders, he said.

The comments underscore Modi’s challenge in trying to balance ties with Russia, which India relies on for cheap oil, and the US, which is providing access to cutting-edge technology to ramp up manufacturing and add jobs in the South Asian nation. China and India are also on a path to normalising relations after a four-year border stand-off, with Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping holding their first bilateral talks in two years on Wednesday.

Russia is this week hosting the first summit since BRICS — comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — expanded to nine members with the addition of the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the larger group represents a “multipolar world” that is more representative of the international community.

Modi said that as BRICS evolves, it should set an “example to the world” by uniting in calls to reform global organisations. “We have to give the world the message that BRICS is not a divisive organisation, but one that works in the interest of humanity,” he added.

As other nations line up to seek membership of BRICS, Modi signalled willingness for them to join as “partner countries” rather than full members.

Separately, the Kazan declaration from the BRICS leaders summit prominently mentioned its concerns over the unfolding conflict in the Middle East.

The member countries reiterated their “grave concern” over the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory, citing the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank because of the “Israeli military offensive”. That has led to “mass killing and injury of civilians, forced displacement and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure”, according to the declaration.

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