China-India spat signals last hurrah for BRICS

BRICS future looks toxic with China and India stepping back from a border-dispute just in time for a summit of the bloc of largeemerging-market countries, media reports on Monday.

Such helps Chinese President Xi Jinping keep up appearances ahead of a crucial political reshuffle.

However, the unusual tensions between the two Asian giants suggest the three-day gathering underway could be a last hurrah.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are united in their opposition of a Western-led global order.

So Xi’s fresh call for an open world economy is easy for members to get behind, amid a rising tide of protectionism in developed marketsto which exports flow.

Since starting to group together roughly a decade ago, the BRICS have wrung concessions from a global climate change agreement.

They have improved their position in international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund.

Beyond that, the BRICS, which account for nearly 29 per cent of global GDP at purchasing power parity, share less in common than other blocs.

The Group of Seven (G7) are all rich, industrialised nations with broadly similar democratic politics.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Gulf Cooperation Council are composed of countries that at least live shoulder-toshoulder.

In everything from history to demographics, politics, and resource dependence, the BRICS vary enormously.

The huge differences have rightly seen the acronym panned as a “bloody ridiculous investment concept”. (NAN)

Now a potentially fatal problem is heightening distrust between its most populous members.

The source of friction is Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative, an ambitious global infrastructure push. (NAN)