In 1948, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said in the United Nations General Assembly, “I am equally interested in solving the problems of Europe. But I also want to say that the world is beyond Europe. You cannot solve your problems with the thought that the problems of Europe are primarily the problems of the world.”
Nehru said, “Problems should be discussed in their entirety. If you ignore even one problem in the world, then you do not understand the problem properly. I am speaking as a representative of Asia and Asia is also a part of this world.”
India’s current Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has been presenting India’s side in a very aggressive manner in the matter of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In June 2022, S Jaishankar said at a conference in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, “Europe has grown up with the mindset that its problems are the problems of the whole world, but the problems of the world are not the problems of Europe.”
India’s foreign policy and India’s being in both BRICS and Quad simultaneously are implicit in these two statements.
The group of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa was called BRICS, but in January this year this group expanded and Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia along UAE also joined it.
BRICS is considered a group dominated by China and Russia. China, Russia, and Iran openly speak anti-West.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt maintain a balance between the West and China. For example, all BRICS members except India and Brazil are involved in China’s ambitious project Belt and Road Initiative i.e. BRI.
Brazil may not be a part of China’s BRI project, but relations have deepened since Lula da Silva became president in 2022. One-third of Brazil’s total exports go to China.
But India is the only country among all BRICS member countries, which is strengthening its strategic partnerships with the West and also maintaining a balance regarding the tense relationship with China.
India is on its way to becoming the third-largest economy in the world. The world’s largest economy is America and the second largest economy is China.
India in many groups simultaneously
On the one hand, India is in the Quad to compete with China in the Indo-Pacific, and on the other hand, it is also in BRICS. The goals of BRICS and Quad are completely different. BRICS talks about challenging the dominance of the West and China sees the Quad as a challenge for itself.
Shriram Chaulia, Dean of Jindal School of International Affairs, told German broadcaster DW, “When BRICS was not expanded, it was a Chaupal of talks. In such a situation, there was not much for India to gain strategically and economically. But now BRICS has expanded and there is a kind of competition here. In such a situation, we do not want the entire space of BRICS to be handed over to China.”
After the expansion, BRICS has a 37 percent share of the global GDP, which is twice the GDP of the European Union.
Chaulia told DW, ”China wants BRICS Plus to stand firmly against the West, but the way the expansion has taken place, China’s objective does not seem to be achieved. Will BRICS get strength from countries that are running with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)? This group will become a group of countries seeking loans and not of those helping each other. I think there will be competition within BRICS as well and China will not have complete dominance. There will be enough scope for bargaining here.”
Recently, China has supported the inclusion of Pakistan in BRICS. Russia also immediately supported Pakistan’s membership. But India is also a founding member of BRICS and it is not easy for Pakistan to join the group without India’s support.
The West’s China card
India no longer wants to belong to any camp. The foundation of India’s foreign policy has been non-alignment. Now India talks about multilateralism instead of non-alignment. That is, India will be with all parties according to its interests.
India’s being in BRICS and Quad seems contradictory, but the West also knows that it does not suffer any loss due to India being in BRICS and Russia also knows that its interests will not be compromised due to India being in Quad.
However, both the West and Russia have been expressing their discomfort over India being in Quad and BRICS. Quad includes India, America, Australia, and Japan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said about the Quad in 2021, “The West wants to restore a unipolar world. But Russia and China are unlikely to be subservient to it. India is currently a pawn of the anti-China policy of Western countries in the Indo-Pacific.” It can be understood from this statement of Russia that India’s growing closeness to America is disturbing it.
At the same time, America has been expressing its discomfort over India’s closeness with BRICS and Russia.
Stanley Johnny, international editor of the English newspaper The Hindu, has written, “In the last four years, many Western analysts and officials have used the China card to bring India to their side. The West does not like the fact that India moves forward on its foreign policy.”
Stanley Johnny has written, “The West tries to create a narrative that both China and Russia are one. Dalip Singh is the Deputy NSA in the Biden administration. He had said in April 2022, a few weeks after the Russian attack on Ukraine – If China violates the Line of Actual Control on the border, then Russia will not come forward to protect India.” Johnny has written, “When PM Modi returned from Moscow in July this year, Jack Sullivan, NSA of the Biden administration, said – ‘It is not wise to bet on Russia for a long time. Russia is coming closer to China.
Russia has even become China’s junior partner. In such a situation, Russia will be with China in any case and not with India. There is no dearth of such advice from the West regarding India. Interestingly, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are going to have bilateral talks in Russia after five years. Just before this, India had announced that both countries had reached an agreement on patrolling on the LAC.”
Many experts believe that maintaining balance in relations with Russia is a big challenge for India. India’s interest is directly linked to good relations with Russia. It is essential to have good relations with Russia in terms of defense needs, Central Asia, and energy.
If India has to reach Central Asia, it can reach only through Iran. It is not easy for India to reach Central Asia without Russia because Russia has a lot of influence in Iran and Central Asia.
Rahul Chhabra, who was the Secretary of Economic Relations in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, told DW, “With the entry of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, 40 percent of the oil trade has come to the share of BRICS. If the BRICS countries make their payment arrangements, it will have a big impact. China will benefit a lot from this but India will also benefit. Every platform is important in the multilateral world and India is on every platform to fulfill its interests.”
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