BRICS summit: How India failed to convince other nations on Pakistan

The Goa declaration didn't refer to Pakistan-based terrorist groups or cross-border terrorism

The Indian side, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his officials, pushed for the BRICS Summit Goa Declaration to specifically mention “cross-border terrorism” that India was faced with and also the names of Pakistani-based terror outfits. However, it failed to convince the other member states.

The Goa Declaration didn’t refer either to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is headed by Masood Azhar, the man India believes was behind the Pathankot terrorist attack, or the Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Saeed is considered to be the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

It did, however, name such groups as the Islamic State, Jabat-al-Nasra, the Syrian Islamist rebel group, and other UN designated groups. Amar Sinha, India’s chief negotiator in the BRICS, said that India couldn’t get a consensus on naming Pakistan-based terrorist outfits since it doesn’t concern all the BRICS countries.

Later, Islamabad criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement where he called Pakistan “the mothership of terrorism”. Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said that Modi’s statement was misleading and a desperate attempt to hide India’s brutalities in Kashmir. “Pakistan joins all the members of BRICS and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) in condemning terrorism and reaffirms its full commitment to fight the menace of terrorism,” Aziz said.

Other BRICS leaders, particularly Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, focused their speeches on strengthening the BRICS economic integration. All other leaders sidestepped the Indian PM’s push for criticism of Pakistan as a sponsor of terrorism.

Putin called for more cooperation among BRICS members in the energy sector by instituting a BRICS Energy Agency.

Both India and China are key partners of Russia in the sector. On Saturday, Putin and Modi had signed an agreement to construct a Russia-India gas pipeline. Xi cautioned against protectionism and said openness held the key to overcome sluggish economic growth.

The Chinese side had initially also proposed that the grouping study a BRICS Free Trade Agreement (FTA). However, other members, particularly South Africa, are apprehensive about cheaper Chinese goods flooding their market. Sinha clarified that a BRICS FTA was never on the agenda. Sources said it was just a trial balloon floated by the Chinese.

Another agreement that eluded the BRICS summit was on setting up a credit ratings agency. However, it was felt that such institutions needed to have credibility and there was a need for experts to study the proposal in greater detail.

The agreement to set up a BRICS Agriculture Research Platform is likely to be helpful for an agrarian country like India, as would the intent to have greater cooperation in railway research.

The members also strongly supported strengthening of the New Development Bank (NDB), or the BRICS Bank, which aims to double its lending to $2.5 billion by next year and increase its staff strength from existing 60 to 350 by the third year of its operation.

The other achievements of the Goa summit were the decision to set up a BRICS Institute for Economic Research and Analysis, agreement on cooperation among national banks of BRICS member countries and the NDB.

HITS OF THE SUMMIT

• Agreement on setting up an Agriculture Research Platform
   
• Discussions to set up a Railway Research Network
   
• All members committed to support NDB, popularly known as BRICS Bank

MISSES FOR INDIA

• Despite Modi’s urgings to fellow BRICS leaders, Goa Declaration has no mention of “cross-border” terrorism
   
• Goa Declaration doesn’t mention Pak-based terror outfits, like JeM or JuD
   
• Agreement on BRICS credit rating agency postponed