New Delhi: India is gearing up for its role as the current BRICS chair with a carefully crafted three-part strategy that aims to keep the grouping's momentum alive while navigating some of the most complex geopolitical fault lines in the world today.
Amitabh Kant, Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs and the architect of India's BRICS outreach, outlined the roadmap in a series of recent statements, signalling that New Delhi intends to push for a forward-looking summit declaration that goes beyond rhetoric and delivers concrete outcomes on trade, technology cooperation, and institutional reform.
According to sources familiar with the discussions, India's first priority is to ensure that the final communique carries a progressive and transformative tone rather than the vague consensus language that has characterised previous summits. Officials believe the expanded BRICS bloc — which welcomed new members including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE after last year's Johannesburg gathering — must now deliver on tangible economic and developmental projects if it hopes to remain relevant in a rapidly shifting global order.
The second, and arguably more challenging, pillar involves addressing the deep-seated differences among Gulf Cooperation Council members within BRICS itself. The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on one side and Qatar (also a GCC member) on the other, compounded by Iran's complex relationship with several Gulf states, presents a delicate diplomatic puzzle for Indian mediators. While India has historically maintained strong ties with all parties, the task of brokering agreement on any joint BRICS initiative involving the Gulf region will require careful, quiet diplomacy from New Delhi's end.
The third element centres on high-stakes bilateral meetings. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to hold separate one-on-one conversations with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the summit. Analysts note that India-China relations remain the defining question for BRICS's future viability, given the border tensions that have periodically disrupted cooperation and the asymmetry in trade volumes that frustrates Indian negotiators. On the technology and development front, India sees potential for selective engagement with China even as strategic competition persists. Meanwhile, the India-Russia partnership, long anchored in defence and energy, is being recalibrated to include broader economic cooperation frameworks.
Kant, who also served as CEO of the Delhi Olympic organising committee and was instrumental in shaping India's soft-power diplomacy, has positioned himself as the public face of India's BRICS outreach, often stressing the need for the group to articulate a clear alternative vision for multilateral governance.
The summit, expected to be hosted in India later this year, will test whether the expanded BRICS can translate its geopolitical weight into actionable policy coordination or whether it will fragment along the same regional divides that have challenged other multi-party forums.
