BRICS/SCO

BRICS originated as an analytical acronym coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001 ("BRIC"), then became a formal grouping when the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China met in 2006 and held their first summit at Yekaterinburg in 2009; South Africa joined in 2010, making "BRICS." The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was founded on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, evolving from the "Shanghai Five" border-confidence mechanism (1996) that resolved post-Soviet boundary questions between China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; Uzbekistan's accession created the SCO. Both bodies reflect China's pursuit of a multipolar order, articulated in its advocacy of "democratisation of international relations" and resistance to Western-led institutions.

The two groupings differ in mandate. BRICS is primarily an economic and developmental coordination forum: its landmark institutional outputs are the New Development Bank (NDB), established by the Fortaleza Declaration of 2014 with headquarters in Shanghai and an initial subscribed capital of USD 100 billion, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), a USD 100 billion currency-swap facility serving as an alternative to the IMF. BRICS operates by consensus, rotating chairmanship, and annual summits, and has increasingly pushed "de-dollarisation" and local-currency trade settlement. The SCO, by contrast, is centred on security cooperation against the "three evils" (terrorism, separatism, extremism), institutionalised in its Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) at Tashkent and the SCO Charter (2002). It conducts joint "Peace Mission" military exercises and coordinates on Afghanistan and Central Asian stability.

Both groupings underwent major enlargement. India and Pakistan became full SCO members in 2017; Iran acceded in 2023, and Belarus in 2024, while Afghanistan and Mongolia hold observer status. BRICS expanded under the Johannesburg Declaration (2023), admitting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE from 1 January 2024 (Saudi Arabia was invited but had not formally confirmed; Argentina declined under President Milei). Indonesia joined as a full member in January 2025, and a "partner country" category was introduced, making "BRICS+." For India, membership in both creates a delicate balance—cooperating with China and Russia within these forums while simultaneously participating in the Quad and deepening ties with the West, illustrating its strategic-autonomy doctrine.

For the exam, BRICS/SCO recurs across the International Relations component of UPSC GS Paper II and the China-foreign-policy syllabus, and in CSS/BCS current-affairs and IR papers. Examiners test the founding dates and locations, the distinction between BRICS (economic) and SCO (security) mandates, the NDB and CRA, RATS, and the enlargement waves of 2017, 2023 and 2024–25. A common analytical angle asks whether these bodies constitute genuine counterweights to the Western-led order or are constrained by internal divergence—notably India–China rivalry and Russia's post-2022 dependence on China. Candidates should be ready to evaluate China's use of both platforms to advance the Belt and Road Initiative, RMB internationalisation, and a Sino-centric multipolarity, and to contrast India's hedging posture with China's revisionist ambitions.