India-China's dynamic diplomacy observed at BRICS table
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New Delhi, Feb 25: India hosted a Meeting of BRICS Finance and Central Bank Deputies virtually on Feb 24. Tarun Bajaj, Secretary Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Michael Patra, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India co-chaired the meeting. The BRICS Finance and Central Bank Deputies of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa were other participants of the meeting. The meeting being instance for India to host the BRICS Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting, was completely accepted and supported by China.
India assumed the BRICS Chairmanship in 2021, when BRICS is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Under the organizations' theme for the year 2021, 'BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation', India’s approach is focused on strengthening collaboration through 'Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.' The meeting held on Feb 24 was the first meeting on the BRICS Financial Cooperation under India Chairship in 2021.
During the meeting, India shared priorities under the financial cooperation agenda and issues for discussion during 2021 such as Global Economic Outlook and Response to COVID 19, Social Infrastructure Financing and Use of Digital Technologies, New Development Bank (NDB) Activities, Fintech for SME and Financial Inclusion, BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), among others.
A day before the meeting it was announced that China has backed India to host the BRICS summit in 2021 and stated that it is willing to work with India and other member states to strengthen internal cooperation of the group. The sudden diplomatic change of the dragon is unusual but definitely not surprising since BRICS is an important forum and it is important for China in the current scenario to maintain healthy diplomacy with groups where it has, at least until now, exercised its dominance. In order to sustain the condition, cooperation with India on international platforms remains to be the only diplomatic stand with China.
Beijing has in fact went a step ahead and tried to justify their move to cooperate with India at an international platform through the Chinese media 'Global Times', whereby the channel quotes the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson saying, "We support India hosting this year's BRICS meetings and stand ready to work together with it and other members to strengthen communication and cooperation in various fields." The GT further explains the stand stating, "China's attitude shows that with the rising uncertainty in the international community, emerging countries need to look to one another for development," and also that, "China's efforts are clear to all in the two decades since the establishment of the BRICS mechanism, acting as an important driving force for the solidification of the mechanism."
The GT also quotes Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, while desperately trying to justify the Chinese diplomatic stance, that "Under the current changes worldwide and the COVID 19 pandemic, China will seek and expand common interests with other member states as always, and is still willing to develop together with other BRICS countries, including India."
While the India-China military disengagement is in progress, in the Ladakh region, the dragon's diplomatic stand at an important international organization like that of BRICS becomes significant in the turn of events.