Brics ma non troppo: how to be united separately (Financial Times)

Brics summit: few details, low expectations
Jamil Anderlini
Financial Times, April 12, 2011

Getting the leaders of the world’s largest developing nations together on the tropical Chinese resort island of Hainan is apparently no easy feat.

With just a day to go before the third annual Brics summit – the only multilateral grouping to be named after a Goldman Sachs marketing campaign – the Chinese organizers have not revealed exactly who will attend, what is on the agenda or even the exact time and location of the meeting.

Probably some of this reticence has to do with security concerns. The national leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa together in one spot presumably make a tantalizing target for any terrorist group hoping to make a big splash.

But it is also symbolic of just how difficult it is to align the interests of these big “emerging markets”, not to mention the schedules of their leaders.

It is hard to see these countries agreeing on anything much beyond their increasing relative importance vis-à-vis the West in general and the United States in particular.

Indeed, you might be forgiven recently for concluding that President Barack Obama’s international travel schedule is being decided based on where China’s influence is growing fastest.

Late last year we saw a much-hyped presidential visit to India and last month Obama swept through Brazil on a Latin American tour that comes as Beijing is ramping up its trade, investment and diplomacy in the region.

For decades China has portrayed itself as a leader and spokesman for developing nations.

But China’s investments and interests around the world are now more akin to those of the western powers and its posture on the global stage has started to change to fit this new reality.

China’s enormous role in global trade – it is now the largest exporter of manufactured goods in the world – and the friction it causes with trading partners is perhaps the second big area of consensus between the four other Brics nations.

All of the other countries have made more balanced trade with China a key discussion topic in bilateral relations.

The problem for Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa is that China mostly imports their raw materials, feeds them into its manufacturing juggernaut and then sends them back as finished products

The Chinese have decided to make “Looking into the future, sharing prosperity” the theme of the Hainan Brics meeting.

But all the other Brics nations have complained that not enough prosperity is coming their way in their bilateral relationships with China and that this has got to change.

One thing that China, as host of this meeting, has said will definitely not be on the agenda is any discussion of the value of its currency, a big concern for most trading partners, including its fellow Brics nations.

Topics for discussion for the one-day event are “the international situation, global economic and financial affairs, development issues and cooperation within Brics,” China’s foreign ministry said at a briefing earlier this month.

One seasoned diplomat from another of the Brics countries was a bit more direct:

“Frankly speaking, nobody’s expecting anything to come out of this meeting. If you consider the diversity of the countries involved and the lack of collective interests among them then it’s understandable to have low expectations.”