BRIC aims for bigger global role

Recently in June, it joined together with three other major emerging economies — Brazil, Russia and India — to hold a summit meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia. This brings together the world's two most populous countries — China and India — plus Russia, the world's biggest country in terms of territory, and Brazil, the largest country in Latin America.

These four countries, which account for more than a quarter of the world's land area and more than 40% of the earth's population, were first put together and labeled BRIC in 2001 by Goldman Sachs. It argued that these four were all developing rapidly and, by 2050, they could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world.

Interestingly, Goldman Sach's BRIC concept caught on and the four countries began to hold meetings at foreign minister level before moving on to their first summit on June 16. At the end of the meeting, they made clear that such summits will be held every year, with the next one to be held in Brazil.

A joint statement issued by this new club at the end of the one-day meeting announced that the four leaders - Hu Jintao of China, Dimitry Medvedev of Russia, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Manmohan Singh of India - had discussed the current global economic situation and prospects for strengthening collaboration.

The BRIC countries clearly see themselves as major international players. “We are committed to advance the reform of international financial institutions, so as to reflect changes in the world economy,” their joint statement said. “The emerging and developing economies must have a greater voice and representation in international financial institutions. We also believe that there is a strong need for a stable, predictable and more diversified international monetary system.”

One word can be used to sum up what these four large, increasingly important, countries want: fairness.

The host, Russia's Medvedev, said in his final statement: “We talked about making the decision-making process on the most important international issues — on the economic agenda, the interntional political agenda on security —fairer.” He said the BRIC countries wanted to “create the conditions for a fairer world order.”

China and the three other countries feel that the existing system does not give them, and other emerging economies, a big enough voice. They seek a “multipolar world order” in which no one country will dominate.

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