BRICS a force despite ifs and buts

Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa discussed topics ranging from infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare to energy development and climate change at the fifth BRICS summit in Durban. But what has caught the world's attention is the proposal to establish a BRICS development bank, aimed at providing a financing channel exclusively for developing countries.

So will BRICS become a center of power that can break the existing world order, which is marked by Western dominance and US hegemony?

It is too early to hazard a guess. But over the past decade, especially since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, the five countries' economic performance has been impressive. BRICS member states now account for more than 20 percent of the global GDP and over one-sixth of the world trade.