BRICs balancing the global scales

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Presidents of China, Russia and Brazil - Hu Jintao, Dmitry Medvedev and Lula – are expected to discuss issues ranging from the international monetary system to global climate control and Iran.

Brazil, Russia, India and China are four economic powerhouses with great potential. They are "a group of countries that are expected to play an increasingly important role in international politics," says Stefan Mair of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "They meet every once in a while to coordinate their positions ahead of major conferences and international negotiations, but it is not an official alliance or union."

The birth of the BRICs

The BRIC acronym has been around since the beginning of this millennium and has replaced the Big 5, which included Indonesia. The group is characterized by growing economies and large populations. Nearly half of the world's population lives in the BRIC countries. Uri Dadush from the Carnegie Endowment argues that Indonesia should belong to this group as well.

"I think the BRIC states are a very important bloc of countries today, but it is essentially arising as a counterpoint to the G8, or G7, which is clearly completely unrepresentative of today's global economy."

Agreeing to disagree

The main common interest among the BRIC countries is their wish to function as a counterbalance to the traditional Western powers and Japan, according to Dadush. But he does not see the four countries becoming a political alliance. "If you look at the strategic interests and the differences of each of these BRIC countries, its difficult to believe that they are going to be a particularly coherent group, say 10 to 15 years from now. There are many things that potentially divide these countries."

One of the things that literally divides China and India, for example, is their ongoing border dispute. And Russia and China also have a long history of competition. "There is probably common ground in certain political fields, such as climate politics where all four countries are somewhat hesitant to invest a great deal. In other areas it is difficult to define common interests." Mair says the countries have little in common, "in BRIC, one of the countries is authoritarian, that's China, then there is Russia, a semi-authoritarian state, and Brazil and India are democracies. For these countries, it is easiest to agree on opposing for example the US and the European Union."

New Iran policy?

One example of where the group might have a counterposition to the US and the EU is Iran, which is expected to be brought up in Thursday's meeting. China and India have traditionally been softer when it comes to sanctioning Iran. Carnegie's Uri Dadush says, "I believe that the relationships between China and India respectively with the United States are based on a very wide range of interests. And I think that the discussions on Iran even if they are taking place among the BRIC countries will reflect that broad range of interests and therefore I would not expect any kind of radical outcome on Iran that would challenge directly the United States. It's just far too sensitive an issue."

A further topic of discussion will probably be the global monetary system. The debate on this has been going on for some time, but at the moment Dadush sees no valid alternative to the dollar as the global reserve currency.

Author: Sarah Berning
Editor: Anne Thomas