Leaders of the BRICS member states have endorsed a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including the UN Security Council, to enhance its democratic nature, representation and efficiency. The corresponding stance has been reflected in the Kazan Declaration of the BRICS summit.
The document contains 134 paragraphs on 43 pages. Among the main topics have been further development of the association, stance on a variety global issues, sanctions, and settlement of regional crises, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Alexander Konkov, PhD in Politics and Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration’s Policy Analysis Department, notes that "BRICS has become an alternative not only to G7, but also to other formats promoted by the West, since BRICS is turning into a full-fledged ‘group of ten.’ But it's not even about the member states themselves, who have for the first time met as a new composition in Kazan, but about the interest that most countries in the world show in the bloc. They have strongly emphasized their desire to join in, which has predetermined the introduction of a new BRICS partner format. And a number of non-BRICS countries are simply interested in cooperating with it, with their representatives flying to Russia to engage in an expanded format. All of this has shown that BRICS has succeeded as an alternative mechanism for global interaction, as opposed to vertically integrated Western-imposed structures operating decisions made in the United States".
In turn, Professor of the Moscow State Art and Cultural University Mikhail Smolin believes that "in financial terms, BRICS is already becoming one of the world’s alternatives, with transition to transactions in domestic currencies being a truly promising thing. But in political terms, consolidation is much more difficult. And economically, many BRICS countries are committed to an alternative to the dollar system."
Regarding economic cooperation within BRICS, Mikhail Smolin has drawn attention to the fact that "at the BRICS summit, a new common currency has already been demonstrated as a preliminary step, and further on, the bloc may create its own currency, which can be perceived as a payment system element. But how their national economies are going to react is another pair of shoes. So far, we do not see specific agreements among the BRICS countries to abandon their national currencies and switch to a common one. Apparently, it would be wrong to waive their national currencies, but introducing some kind of payment system within BRICS is quite an ambitious thing."
The expert also believes that "economic integration within the BRICS countries may well develop as many others seek to join the association, which means they see additional financial and economic opportunities there. But states like South Africa, Brazil, or Argentina (which did not enter the bloc though they wanted to) are politically different. Not to mention Turkey, which is a member of NATO altogether but was also represented in Kazan as an observer, arguing that it wants to take a closer look at the entity. In other words, utterly different states do see advantages for themselves here and will certainly manage to agree on economic issues, but a political union is a much more complicated thing."
Alexander Konkov stressed that "the BRICS was initially built not so much as a political union, but as an economic one. The idea was that states with similar economic growth rates sat at the same table to stimulate them and develop global cooperation. This economic nature keeps underpinning BRICS cooperation. And all the political mechanisms are a superstructure on top of aspirations harbored by its participating states and those displaying interest in building mutually beneficial economic cooperation free of various kinds of sanctions."
