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.