The unprecedented marathon of high international diplomacy kick-started with the BRICS forum – the summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Ufa Summit with Russia as its Chair proved that BRICS is shaping up as a viable alternative to the Group of Seven which is embracing major industrialized economies of the West and by no means can be seen as a “paper architecture” as it was initially described at the West.
The agenda of the forum coined as "BRICS Partnership – A Powerful Factor for Global Development” emphasized BRICS growing ambitions and responsibilities, and its preference to focus on coherent development strategies and wide range of issues – from economics to fighting terrorism rather than on politicizing international relations and being dragged into wars of sanctions.
BRICS summit has set the stage for another summit, held this week in Ufa – meeting of the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was seen as another proof that the center of world politics is constantly shifting from the West to the East. The major outcome of the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was held on the heels of BRICS forum, was granting India and Pakistan – two giants of South Asia SCO – a pass card to full membership in 2016. SCO summit in Ufa also showed that the organization has the potential of further expansion with Iran and Egypt already standing at its doorstep.
Vladimir Sotnikov, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Security, Institute of World Economy and International Relations (studio guest), Gleb Ivashentsov, Russia's former Ambassador to South Korea and Myanmar (studio guest), Manish Chand, CEO and Editor-in-Chief India Writes Network and Rajeev Sharma, independent geopolitical analyst (New Delhi) commented on the issue.
