BRICS: Too Big To Ignore, Too Divided To Rule
On September 12-13, New Delhi will host the 18th BRICS Summit, bringing together the expanded grouping of 11 members and 10 partner countries. India, which assumed the BRICS chair for the fourth time this year, has chosen an unusually hopeful theme for an increasingly complicated grouping: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, reflecting a people-centric approach…
On September 12-13, India will host the 18th BRICS Summit, bringing together the expanded group of 11 members and 10 partner countries. India, currently chairing BRICS for the fourth time, has chosen an optimistic theme: "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," emphasizing a human-centric approach. However, the group's expansion has raised questions about its ability to act as a cohesive unit.
While BRICS now has significant demographic and economic weight, with intra-BRICS trade reaching $1.17 trillion in 2024, the members do not share a common worldview. India and China remain strategic competitors, and other members have varying relationships with the United States. BRICS does not necessarily need to challenge Western dominance to weaken its influence; it can weaken it by making the West less indispensable.
India's digital payment systems offer a practical alternative to the dollar, with New Delhi pushing for greater interoperability to create more efficient cross-border transactions. The future may not involve abandoning the dollar but finding more efficient alternatives. Beyond finance, development lending, trade, technology, supply chains, and global governance present opportunities for more choices rather than a new master.
India's challenge lies in making BRICS stronger without making it China-centric and making it non-Western without making it anti-Western. India's approach to BRICS is significant as it avoids choosing between Washington and Beijing, instead balancing partnerships with the US and Russia while engaging with China when interests align.
BRICS' diversity could be both its greatest strength and weakness, creating difficulties in collective action but also offering a platform for cooperation among nations with differing interests. India's chairmanship seeks to turn BRICS' enormous collective weight into practical cooperation, focusing on trade, finance, technology, development, and global governance.
The success of India's role will be judged by the practical outcomes of these efforts, not just the rhetoric.
Written by urgent.news from Free Press Journal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
