Pakistan and the BRICS Plus in the New Era:A Perspective of Neo-Functionalism

China proposed the idea of‘BRICS Plus’in 2017.However,this hint exasperated India owing to its diverse political and strategic preferences.Conspicuously,the reason for India’s disapproval relates to a probable role for Pakistan through the BRICS plus.Particularly,in the backdrop is China’s progress on regional integration through the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)and the significance extended to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC).In fact,inimical impulses for Pakistan were also felt when India attempted to label Pakistan as a country‘promoting state-sponsored terrorism’through a BRICS summit held in Goa in 2016;the move was later vetoed both by China and Russia.Meanwhile,India’s bilateral relations with China also lacked synergy,which sometimes impact their interaction within the BRICS framework.If viewed through the Neo-Functionalism framework and its concept of‘spill-over,’BRICS plus can reinforce incentives of cooperation in various sectors within a larger group of countries.Interest groups will begin to flourish at a regional level and domestically these groups will lobby their governments to further integrate.This will be overall critical for BRICS in order to steadily engage the world order as a multilateral forum.The question is,will India let go of bilateralism and accept the role of regional countries,particularly Pakistan?This article intends to explore the very concept of the transregional organisation of BRICS and the impact of the nature of relations between India and China.It also illustrates how states in the region,specifically Pakistan,have an intrinsic potential to complement the transregional agenda of BRICS and BRICS plus,particularly through its strategic geographic location and CPEC.For the persistent rise of BRICS,members will have to let go of bilateralism and allow the countries on the periphery to play their role.

China’s Role in BRICS&Relevance to GCC-China Relations:Complementarities&Conflicting Interests

BRICS is indeed viewed as one of the manifestations of‘Rise of the Rest’as against the West.In this milieu,China remains the main vehicle of this change in global transformations.Concurrently,GCC was seen broadly as a consortium of the era when the West required venturing with the oil producing countries.Nonetheless,there is potential for improvising connectivity between the GCC and the BRICS in the backdrop of complementarities and dealing with differences.This is true because,on one hand,BRICS is rapidly gaining a central control in international development and cooperation.While on the other hand,GCC countries remain the focal point of the world in terms of energy supplies.Their amalgam can further strengthen the place these blocs enjoy in the globe at large.Furthermore,with the‘Dawn of the Asian Century’,China is flexing its muscles as an economic giant quite aptly.Since the formulation of its policy of‘opening up’to the world,China has pursued a global agenda of connectivity and growth.Consequently,this rapid development is in consonance with unrestricted energy supply.This is where the GCC countries,especially Saudi Arabia as a major oil exporting country to China,play an important part.In fact,the very rise of BRICS coincides with a radical change in its relations with other countries,specifically with the GCC.For instance,China has succeeded in displacing traditional economic powers,such as Japan,the EU and the US,from the list of the GCC’s largest trading partners over the past five years.China has also been successful in completing joint strategic agreements,demonstrated most recently by the Chinese-Kuwaiti joint investment of$9 billion(Dh33.05 billion)in petrochemicals and oil products.In this regard,this article aims at answering questions like,can this makeup be interpreted as a more strengthened China-GCC relations?What are the complementarities of both China and the GCC in the realm of political,social,economic and security affairs?And are there any conflicting interests?