Lost in the din of the Indian Premier League controversy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's participation in recent summits of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) forums has gone largely unnoticed. Confounding the predictions of motivated sceptics in the West, BRIC has now met twice at the summit level and evolved a common approach to the global financial crisis that has made the quadrilateral a force to reckon with. At the political level, BRIC is hampered by two factors. Each member regards its ties with the United States as its single most important bilateral relationship and is excessively wary of displeasing Washington. Secondly, China and Russia, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), prefer to exercise their power on security-related issues directly at that level rather than through committee. But on the economic front, BRIC solidarity is real. Within the G20, the four countries have jointly pushed for the reform of international financial institutions. In Brasilia on April 15, they called for changes in the governance structures of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to be implemented before the year is over. They also said they would explore the feasibility of using local currencies, rather than the dollar, for trading among themselves, thus signalling their rising stake in the evolution of the international monetary system.
Though similar to BRIC in some respects, IBSA has a geographical and strategic logic that is quite different. The trilateral brings together three important countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America that are not just economically dynamic but politically vibrant and open as well. India, Brazil, and South Africa also share an unjust exclusion from existing structures of global governance such as the UNSC. The challenge before IBSA is to build on existing synergies and complementarities while carving out new areas for cooperation. It has tried to do this in three ways. First, enhancing the trade and investment, initially, within the trilateral and, then, between the three and their wider sub-regions. Secondly, business-to-business interaction and people-to-people contacts have been made a priority. The fruits of that effort are now becoming apparent. Thirdly, the three countries have identified specific thrust areas like agriculture and energy where work is proceeding. The Brasilia summit added a new and important dimension: a shared commitment to social inclusiveness in development. By broadening its agenda in this way, IBSA has demonstrated that multi-polarity is not just about power plays — it's about justice in the broadest possible sense.
