New Delhi is coming face to face with an uncomfortable reality: India's expectations of BRICS as a cohesive counterweight to Western-dominated global institutions are being tested by the very geopolitical fault lines that exist within its ranks.
At the heart of this challenge is the deepening rivalry between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, two BRICS member states whose competing interests in West Asia have real implications for India's strategic calculus. Both nations are critical to India's energy security, trade routes, and diaspora welfare, yet their political differences increasingly pull New Delhi in opposite directions.
Iran and the UAE have been locked in a shadow war across the Middle East for years, vying for influence in countries like Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Tehran supports militant proxies while Abu Dhabi has aligned more closely with Israel and Saudi Arabia. When these rivalries spill over into BRICS forums, they threaten to paralyse the group's ability to present a united front on issues ranging from financial reform to peacekeeping.
For India, the dilemma is stark. New Delhi depends heavily on Iranian oil through the Chabahar Port project, which offers a crucial alternative route to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan. At the same time, the UAE is India's third-largest trading partner, its top source of foreign direct investment, and home to nearly three million Indian expatriates whose remittances form a lifeline for many families back home.
Analysts argue that India must adopt a pragmatic BRICS strategy rather than an idealistic one. Rather than expecting the grouping to deliver sweeping structural reforms or unified geopolitical positions, New Delhi should focus on issue-based cooperation where alignment is possible — on trade facilitation, digital public infrastructure sharing, and development financing — while quietly hedging against friction points caused by Iran-UAE tensions.
India's balancing act is not new, but the stakes have risen significantly. As BRICS expands and takes on a more assertive global role, internal contradictions like the Iran-UAE rivalry will only become more pronounced. How effectively India navigates this complexity could shape not just its regional strategy, but its broader vision for a multipolar world order.
