‍By CGTN's Dialogue

There was a risk that this year’s BRICS Summit, set to get underway in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen on Sunday, may have taken place under a cloud.

China and India had been involved in a standoff at the Donglang section of both countries’ border since June, after Indian troops entered Chinese territory to try to prevent construction of a road.

However, that diplomatic spat was resolved on August 28 when India withdrew all of its troops, leading to optimism from Beijing that this year’s BRICS event will lead to further cooperation among five of the world’s biggest emerging economies.

Ahead of the summit, Andrey Denisov, Russia’s Ambassador to China, expressed his concerns over ties between China and India.

“Both India and China are strategic partners for Russia. Our relations with China and India are developing in a very good shape. We have no doubt wisdom prevails. And all these partitions between India and China will be overpassed due to the wisdom of Chinese and Indian people. The settlement for troubles will be found out. If Russia as a good friend for both can be helpful, why not? But I think India and China can settle it under the bilateral framework,” he said. 

Regarding the BRICS Plus model, Subramanian Swamy, a Member of Parliament in India’s upper house, said, “I know that we do have differences, there have been verbal exchanges at the media level. I think BRICS should expand, but it should not lead to intra-country conflict.”

“Therefore if the choice of country is done unanimously that all five countries agree, then additional membership would not pose a problem. The problem would only arise if it’s not unanimous, and some countries come in by majority votes, that would be a problem,” he said.

Hua Liming, former Chinese Ambassador to Iran and the Netherlands, said that “BRICS is never limited to only five countries. They are the representatives of emerging economies and developing countries. It's natural that India initiated the model of BRICS Plus, China continues to do that. This will be a model of south-south cooperation. We remember when BRICS was established ten years ago, it was only four countries, and South Africa joined just seven years ago. Whether enlarge or not, BRICS will be a representative of all emerging and developing economies.” 

When asked about whether BRICS can rival the G7 in terms of global influence, South African ambassador to China Dolana Msimang said the two blocs have different missions.

“BRICS already has its own influence, we don’t need to compare it to the G7 because the purpose is different. BRICS’ purpose was to first be the voice of the developing communities and emerging communities. And it’s doing that very well,” she said.  

“The establishment of the bank was a major achievement of this goal. BRICS has represented developing communities all over the world for us, therefore giving more strength to the sustainable development goals which will benefit mostly the developing world.”

Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, Brazilian Ambassador to China, offered his hopes and visions for China’s role within the group.

“We have to accept the fact that the new economic order mainly has been changing and China has become a big player. The second largest economy in the world, the first trade partners of a number of countries, a country that exports around 150 billion dollars in investments every year. This has an impact in the international economy,” he said.

“And this impact rearranges the reality in a certain way. I think so far from a purely economic point of view, this rearrangement has been going very well and has a positive effect on Latin America. There will be a change in governance and thinking in a number of aspects, China has a big role to play. The big issue is to make this transition to new reality peaceful and make sure it benefits all countries.”