24 Chapter Two
As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) Russia has no interest in assisting other BRICS countries with
joining or enhancing their position regarding United Nations reform.
Despite the fact that India, Brazil and South Africa continue to lobby for
the reform process and permanent positions on the UNSC, little to no
Russian support is obtained. Russia regards its status as a permanent
member of the Security Council as one of its principle assets along with
the fact that it is a nuclear power. It is interesting to note that following
Russia’s invasion of Abhkazia and South Ossetia in 2008 the country
obtained no support or, more importantly, condemnation from BRICS.^18
Some Russian observers note that it was actually former President
Gorbachev and not Jim O’Neil who first proposed a union of the four
major non-Western powers in 1989 when he pioneered the idea of a
‘strategic triangle’ that would bring together the Soviet Union, India,
China and Brazil. The concept behind the triangle was from the onset anti-
American and one of President Gorbachev’s earliest ideas for winning the
Cold War. It is reported that Mr. Gorbachev told former Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Ghandi that the United States wished them all ill –
something “even worse” than Tiananmen for the Soviet Union, India and
China.^19
India
India has the advantage of demography, economic growth and ambition in
terms of what it can bring to the BRICS collective. There is no doubt that
the country has undergone development as reflected by the fact that GDP
growth in the country moved from 3.5% per annum in the 1960’s and
1970’s to average rates of 5.4% in the 1980’s. This increased to 6.3% from
1992 to 1993 and approximately 9% between 2003 and 2008. Between
2008 and 2009 it was 6.7%, increasing to 8.4% in 2009 to 2010. The
global economic crisis impacted on India and GDP decreased to 6.5% in
2010 to 2011.^20
Bureaucracy remains a significant problem in India, which is the
world’s second-most populous country. There continues to be a major
disconnect between what elected governments wish to achieve and what
the country’s bureaucrats are willing to do to assist the government in
achieving its goals. Despite this, India has a dynamic stock market with
(^18) Laidi, “The BRICS against the West?”, 7-8.
(^19) Moscow Times, 22 March 2013.
(^20) http://data.worldbank.org/country/index