Quad, BRICS vie to woo India

The Quad and the BRICS, the two rivals, are competing with each other as they find India one of its key members among the countries.

The Quad has a rival, BRICS, which assembles ministers from Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa - and India and the leaders see India as the key member for the obvious reason of countering China.

Tokyo recently hosted the "Quad". The leaders of Japan, the United States, India and Australia had met at all is quite an achievement, especially when one of the key members, India, is taking a stance on Russia's war on Ukraine so different from that of the others.

India had abstained from voting on the UN Security Council resolution over Ukraine.

Notably, the Quad has a sort of rival to BRICS, which since 2006 has assembled ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China and which in 2011, will add South Africa.

At first, the BRICS summits appeared to symbolize the growing importance of these big emerging economies, reflecting also in a Western-centric sort of way the fact that the idea of "the BRICS" was originally created by a British chief economist at the American investment bank Goldman Sachs as an intellectual piece of marketing, according to Asia Times.

This year, BRICS will be chaired by China.

As compared with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the BRICS summits look almost technical in nature. The Quad was initiated by Shinzo Abe in 2007 with the idea of influencing or reshaping the grand stage of geopolitics, using joint military exercises between the four countries as a way to emphasize the Quad's role as a counterweight in the Indo-Pacific against China's growing role.

It is to be noted that India is a member both of the Quad and of the BRICS groupings.

The quite intense annual program of BRICS ministerial meetings and other events shows that even if this grouping is largely ignored by the international media, it nevertheless has established quite a strong habit and necessity of consultation and collaboration among the five member countries.

Japan, the United States and Australia see India as the key member for the obvious reason of countering China. But while India does see the need to counter or deter China, it plainly also sees a purpose in consulting quite intensively with China through the BRICS framework, Asia Times reported further.

And, as everyone has been aware since Russia's action in Ukraine on February 24, India remains dependent on Russia, which is China's "strategic partner," for military supplies and technology, and has refused to join in any sanctions or condemnations of Russia's behaviour.

The February's joint statement between Russia and China about that strategic partnership, moreover, talks of an aim of deepening collaboration between those two countries and India.