The Horizons of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership / Andrei Spartak

Andrei Spartak - Doctor of Economics, Professor, Director of the All-Russian Research Market Research Institute OJSC, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the BRICS Russia Expert Council

© Photohost agency brics-russia2020.ru

In 2015 Russia initiated adoption of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership. The document was drawn up because, with the existing differences in geography, history and evolution, the common interests of the BRICS countries were primarily political, while their foreign-trade and investment relations were on a fairly modest scale. At the same time expanding relations within BRICS in the first half of the 2010s and the growing influence of BRICS in the world proved that the association was perfectly viable, but it became obvious that further stable and successful development of the Forum called for conditions favorable for intensified economic cooperation. Accordingly, there arose the need to formulate lucidly the essence of the BRICS group, showing the principles cooperation was to develop on, indicating the objectives and tasks in this area, and also outlining the more promising spheres of interaction in the medium term. The Strategy proposed by Russia contains answers to these questions; in particular, the Strategy points out the following.

- BRICS is a dialogue and cooperation platform among the States. BRICS cooperation is aimed at complementing and strengthening existing bilateral and multilateral relations between the States. In fact, BRICS is a new format of integration cooperation that creates conditions for developing relations, both within BRICS and open to interaction with other interested countries, advanced and developing alike. Thus, the non-confrontational nature of the group was accentuated.

- “This platform aims to promote peace, security, prosperity and development in multipolar, interconnected and globalized world,” i.e. the countries located on different continents emphasize the importance of furthering constructive cooperation on a global scale.

- The main proclaimed principles of partnership furthering are as follows: “full respect for the sovereignty of the States; commitment to international law and recognition of the central role of the United Nations on peace, security and development; recognition of multipolar nature of the global economic and financial system; account for national interests, priorities, growth and development strategies of the States; commitment to supporting sustainable development, strong, balanced and inclusive growth.” The partnership of the BRICS countries is based on commitment to the rules and principles of the multilateral trading system as embodied in the World Trade Organization (WTO), recognition of the multipolar world order, account for national interests of the Countries, and commitment to mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries.

- Economically speaking, the Strategy implementation is to promote mutual trade and investment and create a business-friendly environment for investors and entrepreneurs in all the BRICS countries, to encourage further interaction between markets, which is to enhance and diversify trade and investment cooperation, that support value addition among the BRICS countries.

- In terms of industry branches, the Strategy defines the more topical cooperation areas, among them trade and investment, production and processing of minerals, power engineering, agriculture, including food security and access to food; financial cooperation, and cooperation in the ICT area. For each of the branch lines the Strategy specifies potential forms of cooperation.

- A good deal of store is set in the Strategy by strengthening interrelationships between the countries, including institutional interrelation (intended to encourage convergence of approaches and harmonize issues of foreign-trade operation regulation), physical interrelation (development of transnational transport and logistical systems), contact between individuals (cooperation in the area of education, tourism).

- A separate block in the Strategy focuses on issues of interaction with international and regional economic organizations and forums.

The time that has elapsed since 2015 shows that the Strategy has become a successful foundation for developing economic partnership between the BRICS countries. Despite economic, trade-political and geopolitical problems arising now and then, the trade and economic cooperation within the Forum is expanding and attracting new supporters. Mutual exports of the BRICS countries grew by 45% from 2015 to 2018, while BRICS overall foreign-trade turnover and global trade on the whole in the same period grew by a mere 19% and 18%, respectively. Russia’s trade turnover with the BRICS countries in 2019 was 66% higher than the level in 2015.

The aforesaid confirms the fact that the Strategy correctly defines the basic objectives and principles of partnership, branch trends and instruments of expanding relations. Thus, the approaches to partnership furthering proposed by Russia in 2015 are in keeping with the interests of the BRICS countries and can be used as the basis of a new medium-term document during Russia’s BRICS chairmanship in 2020.

Over the second half of the 2010s the world economic progress underwent substantial changes, structural and technological shifts, affecting economic growth and development, which have to be reflected in a new medium-term Strategy of the BRICS Economic Partnership. In particular, it is necessary to take into consideration the following global processes and transformations. 

Read more in the source: Special issue of the International Affairs magazine devoted to the Russian BRICS Chairmanship in 2020