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By Piyem and Ratnesh Dwivedi
New Delhi, Sept 12 2026
For India, BRICS is both an opportunity and a diplomatic balancing act. As the grouping expands and increasingly presents itself as a voice of the Global South, New Delhi has the political weight, economic credibility and diplomatic reach to shape what BRICS becomes. But India also faces a fundamental problem: the more influential BRICS becomes, the more difficult it may be to reconcile its own interests with those of China, Russia and the other members.
India's greatest strength is that it can position itself as a balancing power Unlike some BRICS members, India is not seeking to turn the organization into an explicitly anti-Western bloc. It is simultaneously a member of BRICS and the G20, a strategic partner of the United States and Europe, a member of the Quad and a long-standing defense partner of Russia. That gives New Delhi unusual diplomatic room to manoeuvre.
This makes India important to the credibility of BRICS as a Global South platform. If BRICS is to represent more than a Russia-China geopolitical project, India's presence is essential. Its democratic prosperity, economy growing and expanding international influence gives the grouping a broader political identity.
India also has an opportunity to push BRICS towards practical economic cooperation rather than geopolitical rhetoric. Digital public infrastructure, cross-border payments, trade, investment, technology, healthcare, energy and food security are areas where India can offer concrete initiatives. Its UPI-based digital payments experience could become one of the country's signature economy contributions to a more integrated BRICS.
But India's biggest strength is also its biggest challenge: China
China is by far the dominant economic power in BRICS. India cannot ignore Beijing, but neither does it want BRICS to become a Chinese-led alternative to Western institutions. The recent improvement in India-China relations may create space for dialogue, but strategic mistrust and economic competition remain. For New Delhi, the question is not whether it can work with China—it must—but whether it can prevent China's weight from defining the entire organization.
Russia creates another complication. Moscow sees BRICS as an important platform in its confrontation with the West. India, meanwhile, wants to preserve its strategic relationship with Russia while deepening ties with Washington and Europe. New Delhi therefore has to ensure that BRICS does not become a Russia-China vehicle directed against the West.
The expansion of BRICS adds another layer of complexity. India now sits at the same table with Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and others whose geopolitical interests can directly collide. The failure to produce a conventional joint statement at the May foreign ministers' meeting over differences concerning the Middle East illustrated the problem. BRICS may be increasingly representative of the Global South, but representation does not necessarily produce consensus.
Ultimately, India's BRICS strategy is less about choosing sides than maximizing strategic autonomy. New Delhi wants a stronger Global South, reform of global institutions and greater economic independence—without replacing Western dominance with Chinese dominance.
India's real test in BRICS, therefore, is whether it can turn diversity into diplomatic leverage. If it can keep China and Russia engaged, prevent BRICS from becoming anti-Western, and deliver practical economic mechanisms, India could emerge as the group's essential balancing force.
But if internal rivalries overwhelm cooperation, India may discover the limits of its influence. BRICS: India's Strategy of Avoiding the Hard Questions
At the New Delhi BRICS Summit, India appears to be choosing pragmatism over confrontation — steering the grouping away from some of its most difficult political questions and towards areas where consensus is easier to find, particularly sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
This is not necessarily an attempt to avoid politics altogether. Rather, it reflects the reality of an increasingly fragmented international order, in which BRICS itself contains deep contradictions. The members do not necessarily agree on wars and conflicts, their relations with the West, or even on what the future global order should look like. Bringing these disagreements into the center of the summit could make a common political declaration difficult, if not impossible.
Sustainable development, climate action, development financing, technology and the SDGs provide India with a more manageable common ground. These are issues on which countries with very different geopolitical interests can still cooperate. By emphasizing them, India may be trying to build the widest possible area of agreement — and, most importantly, create the political space for a joint declaration.
The strategy makes particular sense at a time when the world is experiencing extraordinary geopolitical uncertainty. Countries are increasingly hedging their diplomatic bets rather than committing themselves exclusively to one block or another. They are simultaneously strengthening relationships with different powers and participating in different groupings, depending on their interests.
The logic is similar to an investor operating in a volatile market: diversification reduces risk. Countries are, in effect, diversifying their diplomatic portfolios - maintaining multiple partnerships so that if one relationship becomes difficult, another channel remains open.
BRICS is part of that wider strategy. For India, the grouping offers an important platform to engage with China, Russia and the expanding Global South, while India simultaneously maintains its strategic partnerships with the United States, Europe, Japan and other forums.
The challenge for India is therefore not necessarily to make BRICS agree on every major geopolitical question. It may be to ensure that disagreement does not destroy the grouping's ability to cooperate.
By keeping the most divisive political issues at the margins and focusing on development, India could be pursuing a very practical objective: keep BRICS together, produce a joint declaration, and preserve the grouping as a useful diplomatic platform — even when its members disagree on the fundamentals of world politics.
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