PSIR Simplified

BRICS completes two decades in 2026 as it was founded in 2006. 18^th Summit of BRICS is being held in New Delhi on 12-13 September, 2026. It is the right time to take account of BRICS achievements in last two decades.

The performance of BRICS can be assessed only in the context of  its goals and objectives. Unlike many organizations like SAARC, BIMSTEC, SCO, the BRICs does not have its own Charter, which formally lists its objectives. However, from the activities and declarations of the BRICS, we may infer two broad objectives of  BRICS:

1. Cooperation among member countries: which has now three pillars- political and security; economic; and cultural and People to people exchange.
2. Establishment of multilateral global order which is democratic and inclusive.

Main achievements of BRICS in last 20 years:

1. Cooperation among Member  States

The BRICS has expanded areas of cooperation among member states to political and security issues, economic, and cultural areas.

1. On Political and security issues, BRICS members adopts a common stand on global and regional conflict and cooperate in the emerging security threats like terrorism and cyber security. They have set have working groups in these areas and continuously share their experiences to address these challenges.
2. On economic cooperation , BRICS nations attempt cooperation in  trade and investment, secure supply chains, sustainable development, Environment and climate change, energy security health care, Green and emerging technologies like AI. According to one estimate the Intra-BRICS trade has increased 13 times between 2003 and 2023.
3. On cultural issues, they focus on youth development, women empowerment and people to people exchanges.
4. Establishment of multilateral global order

For this objective, the following actions has been taken:

1. Demand for reforms in the UN system including Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions like World Bank, IMF and WTO (earlier GATT). BRICS nations wants to democratize these institutions, but no success has been achieved so far. However, the voice for reforms has become bolder as during the New Delhi Summit 2026, Indian PM Modi asserted that the reforms in the UN cannon wait further now. There should be roadmap for the same.
2. Measures to reduce dependence on western dominated system:
3. Trade in Local currency and BRICS payment system to reduce dependence on US dollar. This has been promoted since the 2024 Kazan summit.
4. Strengthening the voice of Global South and South-South Cooperation.
5. New institutions: New Development Bank (NDB), Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA). Both institutions were created during the 6^th BRICS summit, under the Fortaleza Declaration, held in Brazil in 2014.

New Development Bank (NDB)

Conceived in 2014 and established in 2015, the NDB is located in Shanghai.

It has two types of members: Non-borrowing members, the developed countries which can invest money toto the funds of the bank but cannot borrow money from the bank. However, the limit of their investment is limited to 45 percent of the total funds of Bank. The remaining 55 percent funds must be held by the members of the BRICS. The voting share of members of the bank depend on their contribution to funds. At present China and India hold 51 percent voting share in the bank. This is done to ensure that the ultimate control of the NDB remains in the hands of the BRICS members.

Second category of membership is borrowing members, which can be any developing country. The borrowing members need not to invest any fund , but are entitled to borrow money from the bank. any non-BRICS member, if it is a borrowing member of Bank can borrow money from the NDB.

Membership of the NDB and BRICS is different.

He NDB  lend money at the nominal rate  to the developing countries. for the infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The performance of the bank has been slow as it has lent funds to the tune of $43 billion to 139 projects in developing countries.

The NBD functions like the world Bank, but it should not be considered substitute of the World bank. It is supplementary to the World bank lending.

Contingency Reserve Arrangement

This was also established in 2015 under the Fortaleza Declaration, 2014.

This provides loan only to the members of the BRICS in the conditions when their balance of payment is disturbed and they need foreign currency.

It works like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But it is not substitute to the IMF.

The total funds of the CRA are $100 billion. So far, no member country has taken loans form the CRA.

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