Will the developed world change their tack?

The BRICS summit in the Russian city of Ufa last week yielded many agreements and action plans, from development issues to making efforts to maintain peace. Many say the summit again reflects Russia's urgency to deliver memorable results when it hosts world leaders.

Apart from making their political stances on pressing global issues known, the five BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - agreed on a common strategy for economic partnership and ways to deepen their cooperation, with their concurrence on putting the BRICS New Development Bank in operation soon being the icing on the cake.

The BRICS members also held talks with Shanghai Cooperation Organization members - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO summit, held simultaneously in Ufa, also announced a long list of agreements and action plans to build railways, roads and implement other infrastructure projects. Other important outcomes of the SCO summit were the approval of the memberships of India and Pakistan, and BRICS and SCO members' agreement to collectively implement China's Belt and Road Initiative and Russia's Eurasian Economic Union initiative.