The Indian side took the lead in forging consensus on criteria for expansion of the Brics grouping and selection of new members at a meeting of leaders of the five-nation bloc, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The expansion of Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) is one of the top items on the agenda. (PTI Photo)

The expansion of Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) is one of the top items on the agenda of the summit being held in Johannesburg.

As moves to include new members in the grouping picked up pace in recent months, India had insisted that the bloc should finalise principles and set criteria for the expansion.

The issue came up during the Brics leaders’ retreat, an informal session that allows for unstructured discussions, on Tuesday night.

The session lasted more than the scheduled two hours and was followed by a dinner hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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“India took the lead in forging consensus on membership criteria and selection of new members,” one of the people cited above said.

The people described the developments on the issue of expansion of Brics during the leaders’ retreat as “significant”.

India’s efforts during the discussions were guided by the objective of incorporating the country’s “strategic partners” as new members of Brics, they said.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s departure for the Brics Summit a day earlier, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had said that India is approaching the issue of expanding Brics with “a positive intent and an open mind”.

Kwatra also said that since the bloc works on the principle of consensus, all member states “have to have full consensus on how they would want Brics expanded, what should be the guiding principles of that expansion [and] what would be the criteria for such an expansion”.

Some 20 to 30 countries have expressed interest in joining Brics, and Argentina, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have emerged as leading candidates.

China is being seen as the main proponent of an aggressive push to expand Brics to make the grouping a counterpoint to Western dominance of world affairs. It has been backed in these efforts by Russia, currently grappling with its diplomatic isolation because of the Ukraine war.

India’s greatest concern regarding the expansion is that Brics shouldn’t become a China-centric grouping, especially at a time when relations between New Delhi and Beijing are at their lowest ebb due to the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rezaul H Laskar Rezaul H Laskar is the Foreign Affairs Editor at Hindustan Times. His interests include movies and music. ...view detail