Kapil Sibal Calls BRICS Motley Group, Says China Benefited Most from Delhi Summit

Kapil Sibal on Monday described BRICS as a "motley" collection of nations from which no definitive resolutions can emerge. He also argued that China gained the most from the bloc’s summit that ended in New Delhi on Sunday.

PTI reported that the Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister also said that for India, as chair, securing a joint statement without any controversy was a notable achievement at the summit in the capital.

Sibal linked that outcome to the internal contradictions within BRICS. He said the grouping brings together countries with different strategic aims and that India had to steer through those differences while finalising the New Delhi declaration.

Hormuz Comparison

Sibal used a sharp metaphor.

"For us, it was like navigating through Hormuz. China and Russia want to make it an alternative anti-western bloc and RIC (Russia, India, China), is now actually Russia, Iran and China.... We will not want it (it to be an anti-Western bloc)," he told PTI at a press conference in New Delhi.

He said India had to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz to arrive at a joint statement. Sibal also argued that China and Russia want BRICS to evolve into an alternative anti-Western bloc. In the same remarks, he said RIC was now effectively Russia, Iran and China.

Declaration And Outcomes

Sibal also pointed to what was left out.

He said the New Delhi declaration did not talk about an alternative currency and de-dollarisation, and described that as an achievement for India. He repeated that getting a joint statement issued without controversy was itself a notable outcome for the chair.

"That is precisely why I noted at the outset that its a notable achievement for our government that a joint resolution was passed without sparking any controversy. I want to say that this cannot be a non-western alliance. China benefitted the most from it," the Independent Rajya Sabha MP told PTI.

The former minister, however, said declarations sometimes remain only on paper and that time would tell whether the New Delhi declaration would be implemented on the ground. The annual BRICS summit ended on Sunday with key outcomes in logistics supply chains, startups and infectious disease control, with its member nations calling for a better global governance and trading architecture to navigate current challenges. BRICS now brings together 11 major emerging economies that account for around 49.5 per cent of the world’s population and 40 per cent of global GDP.

US Iran Remarks

Sibal also linked the summit text to West Asia.

"But we have got to know, as well as other countries of the world, that the US will not win the war against Iran. That reflected in our resolution as there was talk of Palestine and two-nation theory," Sibal told PTI.

He said the US would not win the war against Iran and argued that this was reflected in the summit resolution. He also referred to the mention of Palestine and the two-nation theory in that context.