ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the BRIC countries stance towards the new grouping, and outlines how they perceive the challenges and opportunities, and how significant their commitment is to BRIC. For the time being, BRIC remains for Russia a power multiplier through which it seeks to create broader support for its goals of a multi-polar world order. For India, BRIC constitutes a forum to facilitate negotiations of bilateral trade or investment deals with Brazil, Russia, and China. The chapter analyzes the evolving relations between Brazil and China in light of both these opportunities and challenges, focuses on the communication and cultural processes that either facilitate or, in some instances, hamper linkages, including with respect to business relations. The main challenges to cross-cultural communication between India and China stem not only from the distancing in diplomatic relations that began in the 1960s, but also from the tendency toward provocative discourses of geopolitical rivalry that can shape everyday perceptions, disseminating mutual distrust.
