Include India, Brazil in UN security council: BRIC nations

BRASILIA - Calling for reform of the UN and the global financial architecture, BRIC countries have underlined the centrality of G20 as the premier economic forum and pitched for including India and Brazil in an expanded UN Security Council.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held wide-ranging talks as they pledged to work together for a multi-polar world, an assertion that is set to worry the US as it views groupings like BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) with suspicion.

“We welcome the fact that the G-20 was confirmed as the premier forum for international economic coordination and cooperation of all its member states,” said a joint declaration at the end of the second BRIC summit.

“Compared to previous arrangements, the G-20 is broader, more inclusive, diverse, representative and effective,” the BRIC leaders said.

“We advocate the need for the G-20 to be proactive and formulate a coherent strategy for the post-crisis period,” the BRIC leaders added, while seeking reform of the Bretton Woods institutions, the IMF and the World Bank.

Putting the collective weight of the three trillion dollar economies behind the BRIC initiative, the leaders made a vigorous pitch for the long-overdue reform of the UN and backed a “greater role” for India and Brazil for seat in the UN Security Council.

“In this respect, we reaffirm the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, with a view to making it more effective, efficient and representative, so that it can deal with today’s global challenges more effectively,” said the joint declaration.

Russia hosted the first BRIC summit in Yekaterinburg in June last year.

Referring to the recent resumption of economic growth in emerging markets, the four leaders said that “the foundation of world economic recovery is not yet solid, with uncertainties remaining”.

“We call upon all states to strengthen macroeconomic cooperation, jointly secure world economic recovery and achieve a strong, sustainable and balanced growth.”

They also decided to scale up economic cooperation and underlined the importance of maintaining relative stability of major reserve currencies and sustainability of fiscal policies in order to achieve a strong, long-term balanced economic growth.

The four leaders of top emerging economies, projected by Goldman Sachs to be the world´s largest economies by 2050, also pushed hard for an early conclusion of an international convention to combat terrorism and cooperate closely on issues relating to the global financial crisis.

The BRIC countries account for 20 percent of global GDP and includes two of the largest energy producers and two of the largest consumers in the world.

“BRIC countries have an important role to play in the shaping the pace, direction and sustainability of global economic growth,” said the four leaders at the end of the day-long BRIC summit. China will host the next edition of BRIC summit.

Putting developmental aspirations of common people at the heart of BRIC engagement, the leaders of world´s top performing democracies also wanted scaling up of cooperation in areas ranging from science and technology, trade and investment, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure.