New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived for his maiden summit meeting of the BRICS nations on July 14, 2014 in Brazil. The summit addressed regional crises and security threats to restore a climate of peace while advancing global economic stability.
Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines to discuss the issues relating to the BRICS Development Bank.
The Indian Prime Minister was in Brazil at the invitation of President Dilma Rousseff to attend the Sixth BRICS Summit being held in Fortaleza and Brasilia on 15-16 July. He was accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Adviser AK Doval and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.
Giving a fillip to bilateral ties, India and Brazil decided to expand trade and investment flows while deepening collaboration in the fields of renewable energy, defence and cyber security as they signed three pacts including one on cooperation in the environment sector.
Modi and Rousseff also agreed to intensify their cooperation in international forums and multilateral institutions including the G20.
The External Affairs Ministry said the two leaders agreed to take steps to further expand and diversify trade and investment flows and deepen cooperation in agriculture and dairy science, convention and renewable energy, space research and application, defence, cyber security and environment conservation.
The three agreements signed in the presence of Modi and Rousseff related to cooperation in the field of environment, space and in the establishment of a consultation mechanism on mobility and consular issues.
New Development Bank
Modi launched his first multilateral engagement with BRICS leaders, giving top priority for the establishment of the BRICS development bank with equal share holding for all the five members.
India is keen on the issue of equal share holding as it doesn't want a repeat of the distortions that have crept into Bretton Woods institutions like IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in which rich countries like the US and Japan have a strangle hold.
The BRICS Development bank, an idea which was conceived in Delhi in 2012 and approved in Durban in 2013, is to be set up with an initial corpus of $50 billion, with scope for expansion upto $100 billion when new members are added. For the initial $50 billion, India wants equal contribution by all the five members of $10 billion.
India will hold the Presidency of the $100 billion bank for the first six years. The bank will be based in Shanghai, China's financial hub.
India's presidency will be followed by Brazil and Russia who will have five years term each under an agreement reached after intense negotiations among the five country-grouping BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
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