Dr Binod Singh Ajatshatru, Director of BRICS Institute (New Delhi), when attending Gaidar Forum in Moscow at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, spoke on its sidelines to Invest Foresight, Forum’s strategic media partner, about efficiency of BRICS as an instrument of international cooperation.
“BRICS was born when the world finance collapsed. But the cooperation between Russia, China and India as members of G20 saved the world financial system,” he said. “At the same time, we had to create something different. The performance of BRICS over the past decade should be rated at 8 out of 10. Apart from economy and finance, it also contributes to culture, education and tourism and brings peoples of its member states closer together.”
“Yet its purpose is to change the global financial system and the world order. For that it should get 5 out of 10. For now, we are OK with the status quo,” Dr Singh noted. “China does not want to replace the US as a superpower even though it is the second largest economy. And there is no consensus yet about replacing WTO and other multilateral organizations. BRICS supplements them and favors gradual reforms. So we are going slowly but we are going well. BRICS members have no consensus on the issue of expanding the organization either and in the coming four or five years there will certainly be no expansion. We are open to share our ideas, we want to create a new world order, but we can not take everyone on board as the world is so diverse and BRICS as an institution is just 10 years old. It should now open its markets, focus on agriculture and health technologies.”
Speaking about bilateral relations, Binod Singh Ajatshatru pointed out that “Russia and India should facilitate flow of people, commodities and technologies.”