PM Modi for financial integration among BRICS countries

16th BRICS meeting: Prime Minister Narendra Modi declares that India favours greater financial integration among BRICS member-countries

 India favours greater financial integration among the member-countries of the BRICS grouping, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on Wednesday (October 23, 2024) at the 16th BRICS meeting in Kazan. He placed India’s uncompromising position on international terrorism at the plenary session of the BRICS summit that blamed Israel for ‘unprecedented escalation of violence’ in Gaza Strip and expressed ‘alarm’ over the situation in Lebanon.

“We welcome efforts to increase financial integration among BRICS countries. Trade in local currencies and smooth cross-border payments will strengthen our economic cooperation. The Unified Payments Interface [UPI] developed by India is a huge success story and has been adopted in many countries,” said Mr. Modi, urging more countries to join India in doing trade in local currencies or locally developed payment mechanisms. The plan to conduct trade in local currencies — away from the powerful U.S. dollar — has gained support, especially in the backdrop of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine that invited western sanctions against Russia. Reflecting that sentiment, the BRICS member-countries recognised “widespread benefit” of conducting trade in local currencies, saying, “We welcome the use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners. We encourage strengthening of correspondent banking networks within BRICS and enabling settlements in local currencies in line with BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative (BCBPI), which is voluntary and non-binding.”

Mr. Modi reminded that as BRICS becomes more assertive in expressing the collective aspirations, it should not try to replace other global institutions. “As we take our efforts forward in BRICS, we must be careful to ensure that this organisation does not acquire the image of one that is trying to replace global institutions, instead of being perceived as one that wishes to reform them,” he said.

The 16th BRICS summit that was attended for the first time by the leaderships of new member-countries Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Iran came out with a common statement — Kazan Declaration — that summed up BRICS’ position on challenges facing the world like conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and create more “responsive” international financial architecture.

The joint declaration, in a significant move, clearly stated that “Israeli military offensive” was responsible for the “unprecedented escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip” and called for an end to the conflict, saying, “We stress the urgent need for an immediate, comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and detainees from both sides who are being illegally held captive and unhindered sustainable and at scale supply of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and cessation of all aggressive actions.” The Kazan Declaration further blamed Israel for attacks on humanitarian operations and personnel active in Gaza Strip. Clearly articulating the position of the BRICS, the joint declaration called for UN membership for Palestine and expressed “unwavering support” for the two-state solution formula to end the Israel-Palestinian crisis.

The 16th BRICS summit called for “immediate cessation” of the “attacks by Israel in residential areas of Beirut. Indicating growing international concern about sabotage involving pagers and mobile handsets, the BRICS declaration condemned the pager attacks in Lebanon and described the September 17 pager attacks as “premeditated” that were a “grave violation of international law”.