BRICS wasn't a washout: India needn't worry about China supporting Pakistan

If declarations of commitment, intent and belief that are customarily issued at the end of bilateral or multilateral conferences were to be held up to close scrutiny, most would prove to be not worth the paper they are printed on.

This is largely because of the fluff in which lies hidden what is often described as the "sense of the house" - elusive to untrained eyes that are easily distracted by stilted diplomatese. Possibly that's the way it is intended.

Purpose

So to comb through the lengthy and verbose Goa Declaration issued after the weekend's BRICS summit and look for specifics endorsing India's position, especially on the issue of transnational and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, would be akin to missing the woods for the trees.

Or, to put it more bluntly, it would be silly. The main purpose behind Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to come together on a common platform was to jointly pursue, to the extent possible, the goals of emerging economies.

To facilitate that objective, BRICS was to create an alternative to the antiquated Bretton Woods financial architecture that does not quite meet the needs of these five countries representing 50 per cent of the global population and 25 per cent of the world's GDP.

Everything else, especially collaboration on geopolitical and geostrategic issues, was and remains no more than dressing on the salad.

Each of the member-states has its own national and regional concerns; their national interests do not coincide; and, multilateral action is not necessarily the sum total of bilateral relations.

So to presume that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, like Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale, would think and act like a cabal, united in ideology and purpose within the larger global council of states, would be entirely misplaced.

As would be to attach extraordinary importance to the Goa Declaration in determining who stands with India in its opposition to Pakistan's use of cross-border terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Declaration

The Goa Declaration stating, "We strongly condemn the recent several attacks, against some BRICS countries, including that in India" is, frankly, as meaningless as "We are deeply concerned about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa."

The strange phraseology "recent several attacks" is sufficiently vague not to pin accountability on the attacker, just as expressing concern over "Middle East and North Africa" is vacuous moralising.

Russia and China, let us not forget, have more than a finger in the MENA pie; Brazil, India and South Africa have no role in either exacerbating or taming the situation, much as all three of them may want to see an end to the conflict and death of the Islamic State.

On the other hand, it is only to be expected that China would at best allow the mention of "recent several attacks" and not the specifics of those attacks.

It has too heavily invested in Pakistan to deviate from stated positions like blocking the listing of names like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed in the UN Security Council.

Isolation

Chinese intransigence and Russian hazing need not deter us from forcefully and forthrightly stating our case. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did precisely that, mincing no words in describing Pakistan as the "mother-ship of terrorism".

At every bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS and BIMSTEC conferences, he drove home the point. This was in continuation of India's aggressive stance after the Pakistan-sponsored attack on the Indian Army base in Uri.

Since then, New Delhi has sought to isolate Islamabad with commendable success. The collapse of SAARC is the most visible impact.

Less visible is the gathering revulsion towards Pakistan among its benefactors, most notably America. China is an exception.

These are still early days in New Delhi's attempt to forge a regional and larger global coalition that would hopefully force Pakistan to abandon its policy of inflicting a thousand cuts on India.

There is no guarantee that this effort will yield immediate results, there never was. Used as the world is to an India willing to compromise its national interest to accommodate Pakistani belligerence, it will take time to convince others that it is a new India, a resolute India, not the artificially projected limp-wristed caricature they have dealt with till now.

Looked at from this perspective, the Goa Declaration may not be brimming with support for India against Pakistan; it is not a washout either.

India has begun to speak up and speak out.

Sooner or later India's voice will resonate - if not in Beijing then in other capitals of the world.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

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