The Dynamics of the BRICS Grouping: Convergences and Disparities with the GCC's Global Posture and Stances

Tim Niblock

1. Introduction

This chapter will begin by defining the aims, interests and objectives around which the BRICS grouping has developed. Use will be made of the joint statements, declarations and action plans issued at the end of the summit meetings of BRICS countries. These documents have become more detailed over time, so it is the most recent declarations (especially the Fortaleza Declaration following the July 2014 6 BRICS Summit in Brazil) which will be given most attention. Nonetheless, it is also important to take note of how concerns and positions have developed over time, as reflected in all 7 of the joint statements and declarations. The chapter will then examine the extent to which the GCC's political economy, structure and its international posture converge with the interests and objectives of the existing BRICS countries.

The trajectory through which the BRICS grouping has developed must first be documented. The organisation's existence is sometimes linked to the development of the term "BRIC", in a 2001 paper by the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill entitled "Building Better Global BRICs". In practice, though, this is of limited relevance to the emergence of the BRICS grouping. The beginnings of cooperation among the states concerned had occurred before then, and the main organisational structure (in the form of the annual BRICS Summits) did not come into being until 8 years after O'Neill's article – in 2009. The setting for the initial cooperation was the G-20 grouping, established in September 1999. There was a natural tendency for the leading emerging markets and developing countries in this grouping to adopt common positions (given that they related to the global economy in similar ways), and on occasion to act collaboratively.

The countries which were to form the BRICS grouping began to establish formal links of consultation and cooperation among themselves in the late 1990s and early 2000s. China and Russia had come together in the Shanghai Five grouping in 1996 (together with the Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), and in 2001 this was transformed into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with the addition of Uzbekistan. In the latter year, China and Russia also signed a Treaty of Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation. The SCO Charter was adopted at a summit meeting in June 2002. It covered the purposes, principles, structures and form of organisation of the SCO. Some of these were later echoed in BRICS documents. The SCO, however, has an added focus on military and security cooperation, and the economic dimension is more focused on practical cooperation among the countries concerned. At an important SCO Summit in Astana, in July 2005, observer countries were included for the first time, and among these was India (together with Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia). Both India and Pakistan will be admitted into full membership from 2016.

India, Brazil, and South Africa, for their part, formed the IBSA Dialogue Forum in June 2003. This envisaged regular summit meetings among the leaders of the three countries, and consultations among senior officials, academics, intellectuals and other members of civil society. The Brazilia Declaration, which followed the initial summit (as also similar declarations which have followed the subsequent annual summits), covered many of the topics which were to appear later in BRICS statements and declarations: the reform of the United Nations (specifically including expanding the Security Council membership); making the operation of the global economy more inclusive, integrative and equitable; changing the quota system underlying IMF governance; promoting South-South cooperation, etc. There has in practice been more carry-over of ideas and principles from IBSA to BRICS than from the SCO to BRICS.

The first formal move towards the formation of BRICS as an organised grouping took place in September 2006 when BRIC foreign ministers met together on the margins of the opening of the 61 UN General Assembly. The objective was to explore commonalities in their external policies, and possibilities for coordinated action. Similar meetings were held in September 2007 and September 2008. Some other meetings of BRICS ministers and officials were held in 2008, most significantly a heads of state/government in July 2008, and a meeting of Finance Ministers in November 2008 (held in the shadow of the global economic and financial crisis, which powerfully underlined the need for the BRICS countries to defend their interests by acting collectively). These gatherings formed the basis for the key BRICS development: the initiation of Summit Meetings, the first of which was held in June 2009. At the time of writing seven such summits have been held. The conferences have been the following:

First Summit, Yekaterinburg (Russia), June 2009
Second Summit, Brasilia (Brazil), April 2010
Third Summit, Sanya (China), April 2011. The first to include South Africa
Fourth Summit, New Delhi (India), March 2012
Fifth Summit, Durban (South Africa), March 2013
Sixth Summit, Fortaleza (Brazil), July 2014
Seventh Summit, Ufa (Russia), July 2015

Some observers have suggested that economic developments have undermined the coherence and rationale of the BRICS grouping. In 2015 the GDPs of Russia and Brazil not only failed to achieve the high rates of economic growth which all BRICS countries shared in the first decade of the 2000s, but actually declined. Questions have also been raised about whether the Chinese economy can sustain the high rate of growth which has characterised its economy over the past 30 years. Such observations, however, misunderstand the nature of the BRICS grouping. Its primary dynamic does not rest on high rates of growth but on the...