By Shubham Ghosh
In a significant remark at the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan in Russia last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the platform should refrain from projecting itself as an alternative to global institutions. His indications were clearly to drive home the point that BRICS, which is in an expansion mode, should not be an anti-West bloc. A few days before the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that BRICS is not “anti-West” but “non-West,” recalling that it has been India’s stand.
His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping stressed global peace and security while highlighting the significance of the expanding BRICS community, particularly in relation to some deadly regional confrontations. At the closing session of the latest BRICS summit, Putin praised the role of the grouping as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods”. While apparently Russia and China avoid calling BRICS an anti-West platform, there is little doubt that their ultimate goal is to see the grouping grow as one that challenges the West across sectors. And that adds to India’s challenge.
New Delhi is one of the few countries in the world today that maintains steady ties both with the West and Russia. It was also seen trying to ease its tense relationship with Beijing just before and during the summit through a border détente and bilateral talks between Modi and Xi. India understands that while BRICS is a grouping with vast potential since it covers nearly 30 per cent of global GDP, almost half of the world’s population, and a fifth of global trade, it is also aware that these advantages of the grouping should not be used as tools against the West-led order which could jeopardize not just the global peace pattern but also its own interests.
Given its experience during the Cold War when it stayed away from both the warring Communist and Capitalist blocs and led the Non-Alignment Movement, India would not like to become a part of an official new Cold War between the West and organizations such as BRICS or Shanghai Cooperation Organization of which it is also a member. The BRICS can play a major role in today’s global affairs without getting into collision with the West and India can take up the role of the bridge-builder. New Delhi’s foreign policy has seen it maintaining good ties with not just the US and Russia but also the new entrants in the bloc like the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran.
One of the advantages that India enjoys in international politics is that it has not found itself restricted in any of the ongoing major conflicts like in Ukraine and the Middle East as it has good terms with all parties involved. The only major concern for India has been China but the way the two sides showed an intent to ease tension and Modi and Xi held their first comprehensive bilateral talks in five years, it is clear that the two Asian economies, often dubbed as those that would dominate the 21st century, have not allowed themselves to be dictated by the US-led global views and strategies about containing China in the Indo-Pacific.
While India is also a member of the US-led Quad and recently signed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity captained by Washington, BRICS's politics and prospects give it a completely new responsibility to bear. Eyeing a global order where the Global South has a bigger voice; where countries outside the rich G-7 can aspire to fulfill their economic dreams and where some of the key nations outside the Permanent Five in the UN Security Council
can also impact global politics, the BRICS sets its goal high without actually challenging the West-led order but through a cooperative competition. Modi meant that and rightly so.
(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst based in Bengaluru, India. The views expressed are his own)
