India and Brazil signed three agreements

India and Brazil on 16 July 2014 signed three agreements during the sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil. The agreement was signed by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at the Brazilian President official residence the Itamaraty Palace.

Narendra Modi was on a visit to Brazil to attend 6th BRICS Summit being held in Fortaleza, Brazil form 15 July to 16 July 2014.

The three agreements signed between the two countries are
• MoU on Cooperation in the Field of Environment
• Agreement on Space
• MoU on Cooperation in the Establishment of a consultation mechanism on mobility and consular issues.

MoU on Environment
In the field of Environment, India and Brazil mutually agreed to extend cooperation on Climate change; Biodiversity; Afforestation in arid areas; Water conservation; Protection of wetlands and Waste management. Waste management includes Management of agricultural waste and electronic waste; Management of waste water management; Use of bio-fuels; Air and water quality management; Environmental information systems.

The cooperation in environment between the two countries will be in the form of exchange of information and documentation and collaborative projects. For this two countries agreed to set up an Indo-Brazil Joint Working Group on Environment. The Joint group will see that the contents of the MOU are implemented.

Agreement on Space
The two countries agreed on Implementing Arrangement Establishing Cooperation in Augmentation of a Brazilian Earth Station for Receiving and Processing Data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites.

Other Agreements
The two countries also agreed to take steps to further expand and diversify trade and investment flows and deepen cooperation in agriculture and dairy science, conventional and renewable energy, space research and application, defence, cyber security and environment conservation.

They also agreed to intensify their cooperation in international forums and multilateral institutions, including the G 20.

As leaders of G 4 countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called urgent progress on reforms of the United Nations, including the Security Council, by the time of the 70th anniversary of the UN in 2015.

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7th BRICS Summit to be held in Russian city of Ufa

7th BRICS Summit will be held in Russian city of Ufa in 2015. The announcement was made in Fortaleza Declaration on 16 July 2014 on the sidelines of 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Ufa is the capital city of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, and the industrial, economic, scientific and cultural centre of the republic.

Brazil, India, China and South Africa conveyed their appreciation to Russia for its offer to host the Seventh BRICS Summit in 2015 in the city of Ufa and extend their full support to that end.

The sixth summit was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.

 About BRICS

The term BRIC was first used in 2001 by international investor firm Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper No. 66, The World Needs Better Economic BRIC.

The first summit of the leaders of BRIC countries was held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in June 2009. Brasilia hosted the 2nd BRICS summit in 2010, followed by Sanya in China in 2011, New Delhi in 2012 and Durban in 2013.

In global geopolitics, the acronym BRICS has a special character and weight as the five countries comprise 20 per cent of global GDP amounting to 24 trillion dollars at PPP, 40 per cent of the world’s population and 1/4th of the world’s landmass.

The BRICS is a unique grouping in so far as it’s not a geography-bound grouping like the EU or the ASEAN; or a commodity-based club, like the OPEC, or a security-based alliance such as the NATO. What provides mortar to cement the grouping is the joint strategic will of BRICS countries to reconfigure the world order and engage the world in search of inclusive growth and sustainable solutions.

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