Fortaleza Declaration: Here’re the Important Facts to know about the Trending Topic for UPSC

What is the Fortaleza Declaration? The sixth BRICS summit was the gathering of major developing nations Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa’s sixth annual diplomatic conference. Brazil hosted the summit as the first host country of the current five-year cycle. The Fortaleza Declaration can be explained as the name given to the declaration signed here.

Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner attended the meeting as a special guest, and the BRICS leaders met with their UNASUR counterparts immediately after. The sixth summit saw the official launch of the New Development Bank, a global development bank designed to compete with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The sixth summit was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first major foreign meeting as India’s Prime Minister. In addition to the five BRICS leaders, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was invited to participate in the proceedings.

BRICS

Before the Fortaleza Declaration can be explained, let us look at the organization that facilitated this.

#BRICS is an abbreviation representing the world’s top developing economies, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

#The Leaders Summit is held once a year.

#BRICS accounts for about 40% of the world’s population and 30% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), making it a significant economic engine.

#It is a developing investment market as well as a worldwide power bloc.

#The name “BRICS” was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in a study on the growth prospects for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China – which combined comprised a sizable part of the world’s production and population.

Timeline

#The inaugural Summit was held in 2009 in the Russian Federation, and it focused on subjects such as global financial architecture reform.

#South Africa was asked to join BRIC in December 2010, after which the name BRICS was coined. South Africa then attended the Third Summit in March 2011 in Sanya, China.

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Objectives of BRICS

#This institution aspires to strengthen, widen, and increase collaboration within the grouping as well as among individual nations in order to achieve more sustainable, equitable, and mutually beneficial development.

#This institution takes each member’s growth, development, and poverty objectives into account to ensure that interactions are based on the individual country’s economic strengths while avoiding rivalry whenever feasible.

#BRICS is developing as a new and potential political-diplomatic organisation with a wide range of goals that go well beyond the initial goal of overhauling global financial institutions.

Cooperation Areas of BRICS

#Trade and investment flows between BRICS nations are quickly increasing, as are economic cooperation initiatives in a variety of industries.

#Economic and trade collaboration, innovation cooperation, customs cooperation, strategic cooperation between the BRICS Business Council, contingent reserve agreement, and the New Development Bank have all been signed.

#Members of the BRICS have recognised the importance of increasing People-to-People contacts and fostering greater collaboration in the fields of culture, sport, education, cinema, and youth.

Some more Cooperation Areas of BRICS

#People-to-People interactions aim to establish new friendships.

#The Young Diplomats Forum, Parliamentarian Forum, Trade Union Forum, and Media Forum are examples of such people-to-people encounters.

#The political and security cooperation of the members aims to achieve peace, security, development, and collaboration for a more equal and fair world.

#South Africa’s foreign policy goals, notably the promotion of the African Agenda and South-South Cooperation, are driven by BRICS.

What is the Fortaleza Declaration? Important Agenda

What is the Fortaleza Declaration? Let us look into some of the important agendas.

#Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

#BRICS National Security Advisors Meeting.

# Sherpas and Sous-Sherpas mid-term meeting.

More Things to Know

# Meetings of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on the sidelines of G20, WB/IMF, and stand-alone meetings when needed.

#Meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development, followed by a meeting of the Agricultural Cooperation Working Group.

#Meeting of the  Education Ministers.

We hope that the Fortaleza Declaration has been explained well with the help of these facts.

New Areas of Cooperation

Fortaleza Declaration can also be explained as:

#Mutual acceptance of degrees and diplomas from higher education.

# Public Policies Concerning Labor and Employment, Social Security, and Social Inclusion.

#Dialogue on Foreign Policy Planning.

#Insurance, as well as reinsurance.

#E-commerce Experts’ Seminar.

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Importance of BRICS to India

#Today’s global geopolitics resembles a tug of war, with India caught in the crossfire. This has made it difficult for India to create a middle road between the US and the Russia-China axis in order to balance its strategic objectives.

As a result, this platform allows India to balance the Russia-China axis.

#The BRICS nations had a similar goal of changing the international financial and monetary system, as well as a strong desire to create a more equitable and balanced international order. To that aim, the BRICS group is a key player in the G20, influencing global economic policy and maintaining financial stability.

Some more Facts

#In recent years, BRICS has emerged as the voice of developing nations, or the global south, and has played an important role in safeguarding developing countries’ rights.

#This institution also provides a forum for India to galvanise its anti-terrorism efforts, and the country has pushed within the grouping to take a firm stance against terrorism and to have targeted talks on specific areas related to terrorism.

#China is a key impediment to achieving such aims. As a result, the BRICS initiative gives an opportunity to actively engage with China and address mutual problems.

#It also aids in gaining the support of. India is aggressively seeking membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) (NSG).

12th BRICS Summit: Important Facts

#The 2020 Summit was the twelfth annual BRICS summit, an international relations meeting attended by the five-member countries’ heads of state or government: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The summit was initially planned to take place in Saint Petersburg from July 21 to 23, 2020, however owing to the outbreak of Covid, it was moved to a video conference on November 17, 2020.

#The 2021 Summit will be the thirteenth annual BRICS summit, an international relations meeting attended by the five-member countries’ heads of state or government: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. After 2012 and 2016, India will host the Summit for the third time.

#Through video conferencing, India held the inaugural meeting of the finance and central bank deputies. Michael Patra, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Tarun Bajaj, Secretary of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, India, co-chaired the meeting.

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Conclusion

This article is crucial for students preparing for the IAS Exam since it is a major topic in the UPSC Syllabus’s Indian Polity and International Relations General Studies Paper 2 and Economics General Studies Paper 3.

What is the Fortaleza Declaration? We hope that the Fortaleza Declaration has been explained accurately in this article.  Preparing for UPSC is often challenging for most new aspirants. Coming up with the right strategy, sufficient study material and learning the art of time management is often tasking for many aspirants. This is where we come to your rescue.  At UPSC Pathshala, we not only provide you with the relevant study materials but also provide you with 1:1 mentorship. Please go through our website and read more articles related to UPSC here.