BRICS members, especially India and China, have to work closely in order to challenge West’s dominance: Veteran economist

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for instance, made a trip to the United States in June – his first with the full diplomatic status of an official state visit. Before that, Mr Modi made five previous visits to the US since becoming prime minister in 2014.

The UK too, is frequently trying to establish greater ties with India, said Mr O’Neill, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK Treasury Minister.

“At the heart of the challenges the BRICS face in being effective is again, when you really look at it realistically, India and China rarely agree on anything,” he added.

“If the BRICS really wanted to achieve things, China and India have got to somehow be a lot more serious about trying to do things together.”