As the Quad Blossoms, Why Does BRICS Matter for

India?
thediplomat.com/2023/07/as-the-quad-blossoms-why-does-brics-matter-for-india

Abhishek Sharma, Moksh Suri

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar while attending the 2023

EU-India Pacific Ministerial Forum declared that “a multipolar world is
feasible only by a multipolar Asia.” India’s multipolar model demands
an international political system where it can exercise greater agency
and influence in different strategic regions, institutions, and
negotiations. To achieve this goal, New Delhi has been pursuing a
“multialignment” or “issue-based alignment” strategy, which aims to
simultaneously participate and pursue its interests in multiple strategic
and economic coalitions, such as the Quad and BRICS.

The key drivers of India’s multidirectional foreign policy reflect its key
interests: economic prosperity, technology advancements, research
and innovation, norm influencing, and strengthening security. In this
endeavor, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and
the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) are the two
strategic organizational platforms that have become a top priority for
India.

Today, the Quad mostly tends to dominate Indian foreign policy

discourse, especially after the 2020 China-India border standoff, which
fractured bilateral relations. However, it’s important to dive deeper and
try to figure out where exactly BRICS fits into India’s current
geoeconomic and geopolitical strategy. What does BRICS bring to the
table? And what is the strategic logic behind India’s continuing
membership in BRICS?

Multipolar Asia or Multipolar World: Which One to Prefer?

During the 2023 BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting, Jaishankar
asserted that “the BRICS gathering must send a message that the
world is multipolar, that it is rebalancing, and that old ways cannot
address new situations.” As the international order incrementally
becomes multipolar, principles of equality, mutual respect, and
consensus will drive state interactions in multilateral institutions and
coalitions.

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Currently, BRICS seems to incorporate what India looks for in its

development-focused diplomatic engagement. BRICS, which initially
started as a consultative grouping of five developing economies, is now
gaining political undertones with plans for its expansion. Countries like
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh, Argentina, and Indonesia have
registered their interest in joining BRICS.

BRICS’s development-focused diplomacy resonates strongly with

India’s core interests – energy security, combating terrorism, and
climate change financing. At the same time, its wider and deeper issue
items and agenda separate BRICS from other strategic forums that
India currently participates in. BRICS constantly emphasizes themes
ranging from “promoting economic recovery,” “expediting
implementation of 2030 agenda on sustainable development,” and
“strengthening and reforming multilateral governance.” These further
reflect the socioeconomic realities that developing countries face.

But more importantly, BRICS may be an equally vital geopolitical force

in the future because of the grouping’s constant attempts to amplify
non-traditional security threats and promote economic security within
the forum. It has mainstreamed non-traditional threats as part of a
broader security agenda, which is often missing in global discussions.
Moving forward we will likely see politicization of non-traditional
security and its implications on economies of countries.

BRICS also provides India with the agency and political support to
push against what New Delhi sees as unfair coercive systems such as
the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) taxes,
economic concentration, and unilateral sanctions. The CBAM in
particular is expected to have an impact of $8 billion annually on India’s
exports of steel, aluminum and iron ore. India has thus asked for a
carve out for its small and medium enterprises during its negotiations
with the EU. India is working with fellow BRICS partners South Africa,
China, and Brazil to firmly oppose this.

Opposition from the current BRICS members becomes more critical as

many developed countries are expected to join the CBAM bandwagon.
The G-7 joint communique stated that the G-7 member states “will
work together, and with partners beyond the G-7, to expand the
ambitious use of carbon markets and carbon pricing.” This points
toward India’s concern regarding carbon tax provisions, which not only
affect India’s and developing countries’ economic interests, but also
undermine the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility
and respective capabilities” which addresses the contextual
socioeconomic realities and climate justice issue.

Furthermore, provisions like the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act

(IRA), with its green subsidy package, add to the worries of developing
and less developed nations. These are manifestations of two broader
trends: increasing mercantilist tendencies, and the erosion of principles
negotiated and fought hard for by India and developing countries.
Often, assumptions about China-India relations based on their border
dispute are used to prejudge the working of BRICS or negate its
importance altogether. Such an approach fails to take into account
nuances and complexity of their relations beyond the region, including
cooperation on climate change or in multilateral institutions like the
World Trade Organization (WTO) against subsidies programs. BRICS
has continued to play a critical role in pushing for an “open,
transparent, inclusive, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral
trading system” that favors India’s and developing countries’ interests;
there is also a rising demand for inclusiveness and fair institutions. This
concern becomes more important as trade protectionism and anti-
globalization sentiment is rising in the West. BRICS becomes a critical
platform to counter the trend of strategic insularity proliferating in the
Global North.

India’s global aspirations and interests, such as on reforms in

multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund, WTO,
United Nations, and U.N. Security Council are also backed by BRICS.
BRICS gives India the opportunity to voice its developmental interests
in a way that no other grouping can match. In addition, BRICS
members are playing a greater role in shaping the global political
landscape, an area where India finds itself standing against the likes of
the United States, Japan, and Australia – fellow members of Quad. In
the contemporary world, BRICS represents global socioeconomic
realities that are often relegated to the periphery of international
politics.

More immediately, the diplomatic calendar makes BRICS a vital forum

to shape the discourse, agenda, and discussion items for the next few
years. India is this year’s host of the G-20 summit, and Brazil will be
hosting the COP30 and G-20 summit in 2024, followed by South Africa
in 2025. With that in mind, BRICS will provide New Delhi an
organizational platform to create consensus on key issues that directly
impact India’s economic, food and energy security.

Nonetheless, New Delhi remains concerned about Beijing’s intention to

shape the evolution of BRICS into a key non-Western geopolitical
forum to expand its sphere of influence. These objectives may include
adopting a common BRICS currency for intra-BRICS trade. Therefore,
India remains cautious of any arbitrary expansion of BRICS and has
asked for a standardized process to follow. New Delhi is also
concerned about the potential hijacking of BRICS by China as an “anti-
Western” grouping against G-7. Still, it is important to realize that
disagreements between India and China will not always overshadow
the larger prospects and interests of the grouping.

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Indian strategic circles recognize BRICS’s primary role in shaping the

international trade order, climate change policies, financing, and
reformed multilateralism. New Delhi aims to play a larger role in
international politics and negotiations, which would further emphasize
the critical role of BRICS. While the focus would remain on promoting,
protecting, and leveraging Indian strategic interests and raising its
status, some would also argue that New Delhi should prioritize the
Indo-Pacific region, given the rising status of the Quad in India’s
strategic calculations. The choice seems to be between a multipolar
Asia and a multipolar globe. The former reflects India’s regional
interests, and the latter its global aspirations. Currently it’s not a game
of either-or, but one of preferential diplomatic management.