Foreign minister S Jaishankar attends Brics meet with focus on economy, security
Hours after external affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar slammed China for its position on terror and articulated.
A much stronger degree of Indian concern at the war in Ukraine and its consequences at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, he met his Russian and Chinese counterparts at a Brics meeting in New York on Thursday. Brazil and South Africa are the other members of the grouping.
Brics also issued a communique covering areas of discussion that spanned from multilateralism to terrorism, climate to health, corruption to human rights, among other themes.
After the meeting, the minister tweeted, “A traditional BRICS gathering on the sidelines of #UNGA77. Exchange of perspectives on the global situation, international economy and regional issues. Made the case for Reformed Multilateralism. Wished Naledi Pandor and South Africa all success for their Chairship.”
In a press statement, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said that the ministers exchanged views on major global and regional issues on the United Nations agenda in the political, security, economic, financial and sustainable development spheres, as well as on intra-BRICS activities.
“They reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening and reforming the multilateral system, especially of the UN and its principal organs. They rejected double standards in countering terrorism and extremism. They called for an expeditious finalisation and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.“
The MEA statement said that Brics countries had “committed to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States, stressed their commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, and supported all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of situation in Ukraine”.
The five countries also acknowledged the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference Decision on the TRIPS Agreement to provide flexibilities to cover the production and supply of Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. They called for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in a balanced and integrated manner.” And on climate, the grouping “stressed the importance of the fulfilment, delivery and urgency of developed countries’ commitments to provide credible, adequate, predictable, timely, new and additional financing and technology transfer to developing countries to combat climate change”.
The nature of the minister’s tweet — with the pointed reference to it being a traditional gathering and limited focus on India’s message and exchange of views — stood in contrast to many of the more effusive and warm tweets put out by the minister about his other engagements. It also stood in contrast to the optics of the Quad meeting on Friday morning, where the comfort level among the foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan and the United States appeared to be much higher.
The focus of the MEA press release and issues it chose to highlight also indicate that India saw the forum as an avenue to articulate and push its concerns on multilateralism, health, terror while emphasizing the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity — principles applicable to both Ukraine and the situation at the India-China border.
The Brics meeting is also just one component of a series of other trilateral and plurilateral engagements — the minister has already participated in an India-France-United Arab Emirates meeting; India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) ministers met a day before Brics; Quad ministers met on Friday morning; the India-France-Australia and India-Indonesia-Australia ministerials are also scheduled for later in the day.
Explaining the rationale and politics behind the Brics meet, Harsh Pant of the Observer Research Foundation, said “This diplomatic choreography that Jaishankar is involved in seems to underscore that India remains willing to keep channels of communication open with both China and Russia, even as it underscores at different fora the challenges that India is facing because of the actions of both China and Russia in different ways.”
Pant said that with China, the problem is more serious in the context of border issues and how that is reflected in the deterioration in India-China ties. With Russia, it is a question of deterioration in global environment and consequences of that for Indian national interests.
“In both cases, India is willing to quite categorically express its opinions. But at the same time, it is willing to engage in conversations where India can work with Russia and China on global issues where there is a degree of convergence. But ultimately, India is not shying away from making its reservations clear”. Pant said the expression of commitment to Brics shows that India is willing to use it as a platform for advocating greater representation of emerging voices in global order but this does not mean that bilateral challenges will go unchallenged or will not be reflected in India’s position, as the minister’s other interventions have made clear.