A day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram questioned the “tangible benefits” India got out of BRICS, his party colleague and MP Shashi Tharoor has said that the grouping shows India’s “diplomatic convening power”.
“First of all, we’re providing an important platform for the Global South. You know, the Global South is over 100 countries, but here we have 11 key players from the Global South who collectively represent much of the diversity of views, as well as the range of countries that we are essentially chairing on this particular occasion. This grouping, the 11 BRICS countries, represents a majority of the world’s population and 41 per cent of global GDP,” Tharoor said highlighting the importance of BRICS.
Calling the hosting of the summit a “matter of prestige”, Tharoor said the event has great global value.
“Secondly, of course, having a dozen heads of state and government, not only members of BRICS but also some observers coming at presidential and prime ministerial level, is a matter of great prestige for us. It shows a certain diplomatic convening power, which has value in and of itself on the global stage. Tharoor pointed out the BRICS foreign ministers could not agree on a joint statement on the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Calling it a challenge to secure a convergence of views among the different member states, Tharoor pointed out that if that happens again, some will see it as a setback. In May this year, when Foreign Ministers of BRICS met in New Delhi, differences between Iran and the UAE over the war scuttled a joint declaration. At that time, India was unable to bridge the diplomatic gap within BRICS and could not come up with a joint statement after the two-day meeting of the Foreign Ministers. He pointed out that India is part of several multilateral groupings, including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), G20 and QUAD, but questioned what concrete benefits the country has received from them.
On Wednesday, former Union minister and Tharoor’s party colleague, P Chidambaram, had questioned the “tangible benefits” India has gained from recent BRICS summits. Chidambaram said he had not seen any significant outcomes from the last two or three meetings.
