Think-Tanks'Press

Numerous new branches of cooperation are being activated, such as interaction between regions, interaction in the field of international information security, tourism, energy, etc. Particular attention is paid to strengthening the role of BRICS in the context of interaction at the level of major international organizations (United Nations and World Trade Organization) and platforms (G20).

The meeting of BRICS Ministers of Industry on July 29, 2017, in Hangzhou ended in signing the Action Plan to deepen industrial cooperation between the states of the association.

The most important innovation in the development of BRICS is, of course, China’s idea to include extra-regional players in the dialogue in the «BRICS+» and «BRICS++» format.

In 2017, Mexico was invited to the BRICS summit as a representative of Latin American region, Guinea would represent the African Union, Egypt would represent North Africa, Tajikistan became the representative of the Eurasian space, and Thailand — of South-East Asia.

It should be recognized that, given the economic situation — like the slowdown in economic growth in many BRICS countries and even its downturns, as well as political factors such as deteriorating situation in Brazil and South Africa, the growing tension between Russia and the leading Western countries, BRICS is being seriously challenged.

There is certain tension among BRICS countries, especially between China and India, which, of course, puts the unity of BRICS to test. Certain contradictions between Russia and India are associated with the support of Pakistan and a number of issues in the area of military and technical cooperation.

The interests of resource producing countries and consumer countries also rarely coincide. In this regard, there is a number of contradictions with both Brazil and South Africa.