China calls on Brics members to stick together

CHINESE President Xi Jinping yesterday acknowledged growing doubts over the relevance of the fivenation Brics bloc of large emerging economies, but called for the group to stick together even after China’s tense border row with fellow member India.

Xi will host the ninth annual Brics summit today in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen under the shadow of the border row and a North Korean hydrogen bomb blast.

In a speech yesterday in Xiamen, Xi alluded to questions hanging over the bloc, with disparate members preoccupied with political and economic problems at home.

“Some people, seeing that emerging markets and developing countries have experienced growth setbacks, assert that Brics countries are losing their lustre.”

Xi said: “Brics countries have encountered headwinds of varying intensity” but added the bloc remained “fully confident”.

Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – was formed to allow emerging economies that comprise more than 40% of humanity to present a united front in a world whose trade and finance rules were written by the West.

But analysts say the bloc has made little progress towards that goal.

Lumping together far-flung and vastly different political and economic systems, Brics has long been viewed by many as contrived, with few commonalities or significant achievements.

While China is an economic powerhouse and India is rising, the Russian, Brazilian and South African economies have been hit hard by weak prices of export commodities.

Brazilian President Michel Temer and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, meanwhile, are distracted by political turmoil at home.

Nuclear-armed China and India avoided a full-blown crisis when they backed away last week from a protracted standoff over a disputed Himalayan region – perhaps to avoid sullying the summit. But the encounter left a bitter aftertaste. Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointedly said last week China hoped India will “learn lessons from this incident and prevent similar things from happening again”.

In his speech yesterday, Xi stressed the need for Brics members to show mutual respect and “avoid conflicts” but otherwise did not mention the border dispute.

India and China are also divided over China’s ally Pakistan, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will also attend the summit, has labelled a fount of terrorism.

Modi snubbed a separate summit called by Xi in May to promote the Chinese leader’s vision of reinvigorated ancient east-west trading routes, which is seen by many analysts as a Chinese geopolitical power play.

Intra-Brics trade is heavily tilted in China’s favour, fuelling complaints from fellow members. India alone has lodged several trade cases against China this year. — AFP