Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi: the two men, aged 70 and 72 respectively, are from the same generation. They share the same power – the first led China in 2013, the second led India in 2014. More importantly, they share the same dream: to make their country the first power of the 21st century. This is where their irreconcilable differences begin. From this derives the competitive geo-economic-political strategy, which received a new illustration at the fifteenth BRICS Summit. It brings together five member countries in Johannesburg (four founders in 2009: Brazil, China, India, Russia, joining South Africa in 2010) as well as about fifty countries, of which more than 20 countries are candidate members.
China’s Xi Jinping, who was re-elected in March for a third and final five-year term, is pushing for a rapid membership expansion. “We must allow more countries to join the BRICS family and unify their wisdom to make global governance more equitable and reasonable,” he said on Wednesday. India, through the voice of Prime Minister Modi, backed the members’ “consensus”, before making perimeter modifications, an elegant way of delaying the process.
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