The Pak Factor For India And China At BRICS Summit In Goa: 10 Points

The gathering of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) gives PM Modi an opportunity to highlight the threat from Pakistani terrorists, who, last month, attacked an army camp in Uri in Kashmir. 19 soldiers were killed. Before conducting surgical strikes across the Line of Control on September 29, Delhi mounted a diplomatic offensive to isolate Islamabad.

PM Modi, who arrived in Goa last night, said he was optimistic that the BRICS "will advance common agenda for peace, stability".

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and top Indian diplomats will push for a consensus on a strongly worded "counterterrorism" statement and a declaration that will highlight "isolating countries that provide shelter to terror groups and help in arming these groups".

Sources say China is open to a strong statement however President Xi Jinping is unlikely to have much interest in casting Beijing's alliance with Pakistan into doubt.

But what does concern China is how the terrorism within Pakistan threatens its plans to build a $46 billion trade corridor that runs through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. "Contrary to the public messaging in Islamabad, China is not the perpetual jolly partner when it comes to its relations with Pakistan," said Michael Kugelman, a senior program associate at the Wilson Center in Washington who focuses on South Asia.

After the Uri attack, India quickly won expressions of support from the West and from Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin will also hold a bilateral summit with PM Modi in Goa. China, for its part, has shown public restraint.

The Goa gathering of BRICS will also feature an outreach session to countries from the Bay of Bengal region that could emerge as an alternative focus of regional cooperation.

China has also yet to yield on blocking India's long-held ambition of joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a club of nuclear-trading nations, and experts say Delhi is unlikely to make much progress in Goa on managing a breakthrough.

Adding to the tension with Delhi, China has rebuffed India's calls for the United Nations to designate Masood Azhar, leader of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed group, as a terrorist. China recently extended a so-called "technical hold" on the designation by a further three months.

BRICS was formed in 2011 with the aim of using its growing economic and political influence to challenge Western hegemony. The nations, with a joint estimated GDP of $16 trillion, set up their own bank in parallel to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and World Bank and hold summits rivalling the G7 forum.