Why India Won’t Align: The Truth About the BRICS Delhi Summit

Think BRICS

Think BRICS explores the latest BRICS summit news from New Delhi in this in-depth interview with Rajoli Siddharth Jayaprakash, fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. The conversation focuses on India, BRICS, and the deeper geopolitics shaping the Global South, with a particular focus on India's move toward a more independent role in the emerging world order.  Why does India prioritize strategic autonomy at the New Delhi Summit? How does this shape Indian foreign policy, India BRICS strategy, and the country’s position in the wider debate over India vs West? Host Lorenzo examines these questions with Siddharth, looking at India-Russia relations, non-alignment, diplomacy, and the idea of a strategic partnership in a rapidly changing global landscape.  The discussion also looks at BRICS expansion, de-dollarization, geopolitical strategy, and the growing relevance of multipolarity. As western dominance is increasingly challenged, what does the future of BRICS mean for international relations and the broader global power shift? This episode offers a clear view of how India, BRICS, and the New Delhi summit fit into the evolving politics of the Global South.  If you're following BRICS summit news, Indian foreign policy, or the debate over de-dollarization and the future of the world order, this Think BRICS interview is essential viewing.  #Geopolitics #India #BRICS  00:00 — Why the New Delhi BRICS Summit matters for global power  01:15 — India’s strategic vision for a democratized and multipolar world order  03:13 — Evolution of Indian foreign policy: from non-alignment to strategic autonomy  05:57 — How the non-aligned movement continues to influence today's multipolarity 08:28 — Does India still need the West for economic development and growth?  10:33 — Why India views BRICS as a non-western platform for global reform  13:13 — Strategic impact of the Strait of Hormuz crisis on India's interests  16:11 — The status of India-Russia relations and strategic partnership today 18:37 — BRICS news: the reality of de-dollarization and reserve currency shifts  21:33 — Why India's UPI model faces challenges within the BRICS framework  23:52 — How India became the representative "Voice of the Global South"  26:10 — Interview wrap-up and how to support Think BRICS  🌍 @ThinkBRICS_de | @ThinkBRICS_es | @ThinkBRICS_pt 🎥 @ThinkBRICSChronicles | @BRICSbusiness 📰 Newsletter: thinkbrics.substack.com ☕ Support: buymeacoffee.com/ThinkBRICS ✅ Subscribe: youtube.com/@ThinkBRICS?sub_confirmation=1  ⚠️ Educational content. Public sources. Not official advice. Verify independently. Fair use.

Transcript

00:00Welcome everybody to Think Bricks. I'm Lorenzo and we are here back to talk about what's going

00:05on looking forward, the Bricks Summit in New Delhi, India. And today we would really like

00:11to listen to the insights that a new special guest will give to us. It's Rajoli Siddharth

00:17Jaya Prakash. Welcome to Think Bricks, my dear. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

00:24He is a junior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and a visiting fellow at the Center

00:30for Indo-Pacific at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow. He's also

00:36a final year PhD candidate in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, so it's a great pleasure

00:42to have such an expert with us. Really, thank you, Siddharth, to be here with us. I would like to

00:50start exactly discussing about the Bricks Summit. This upcoming summit in New Delhi is a very

00:58important moment. Please tell us the Indian perspective. What is the strategic meaning of

01:05this event? And also, what role is playing India building a truly multipolar world by the Indian

01:13perspective? So I think Bricks offers India a lot of opportunities in a sense that it magnifies

01:21India's view of a democratized global order, which is an alternative to the current Western-led order.

01:32So that's one of the opportunities that India has. So India looks forward to hosting Bricks this time,

01:37because this time Bricks comes at the juncture of the world being in significant churn, marked by

01:43the American and Israeli invasion in Iran, for instance, and other factors. So with sanctions,

01:50with tariffs and other things, I think Bricks this time will be a very interesting platform to discuss

01:56these events, considering that since the expansion, this would be the second time the countries would come

02:04together. So in this context and this backdrop, I think it will be a very interesting moment for India

02:09in Bricks further to articulate their visions of a multipolar order, in my opinion.

02:16So we have... India has a unique view of multipolarism, which is founded on your history as a civilization,

02:26as different religions, as your political view. And India really sees multipolarism as a unique

02:34way. And it's not just a counterweight to the West, but it's a way to protect its strategic

02:40autonomy, which is one of the topics you've just mentioned. How has been developed this idea in Indian

02:47foreign policy? As we know that India is positioning itself as one of the main players in the world,

02:54and is now in a dialogue with Russia and China in the region context, but also something more,

03:00because it started to dialogue with the European Union, for example. So it is approaching to the

03:06collective West as maybe one of the possible players that can really change the world.

03:13It's an interesting question, actually. If you look at Indian foreign policy, since our independence,

03:18India has faced strategic challenges. With Pakistan in the West and China in the East,

03:24India's foreign policy always had to deal with the regional issues that we had.

03:27So in that context, during the Cold War, India could not have a foreign policy that

03:32hedged on one side. So India had to have a non-aligned foreign policy where it didn't mean

03:38that India would remain neutral, but India would remain non-aligned, as in we would deal with both

03:43the worlds. So an extension of that policy today is strategic autonomy. Although the traditional

03:48non-alignment doesn't work because India is closer to the global geoeconomics now, because since 1991,

03:53the Indian economy underwent liberalization and since 2000, India's relationship with the collective

03:59West, as you mentioned, accelerated. So we see that in that context, India has relationships with

04:08the European Union, America, the Southeast Asian countries, ASEAN, and you have South Korea and Japan.

04:14At the same time, India pursues very strong relations with Russia. So that's one of the unique

04:21mainstays of Indian foreign policy that India tries to remain truly strategically autonomous.

04:25Like even if you look at something like India's relations with the United States, where there is

04:30a lot of converging positions in the Indo-Pacific, the same cannot be said in the case of the West,

04:35where there is the state of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, for instance, where America does not

04:41agree necessarily agree with India's standpoints in the Indian Ocean. So in this context, Indian foreign

04:47policy is truly strategically autonomous in a sense that it tries to survive against the backdrop of

04:55the problems and issues that we have in the regional neighbourhood and long-term strategic concerns.

05:00Indian foreign policy is configured as such and will remain configured so because India cannot afford to

05:06hedge like probably the other countries in Europe or in other East Asian countries, in my opinion.

05:14I want to focus on something that you just said. We mentioned the non-alignment. As we know,

05:21India is one of the main players and also supporters of the non-alignment doctrine. Do you think this is

05:32just a

05:32more theoretical question? Do you think that these non-alignment moods will be followed in a multipolar

05:40world will be enlarged, extended also to other countries that would really like to apply this

05:46as a kind of new modality for international relations or maybe the non-alignment system

05:52will be suppressed and substituted with something else? So that's again an interesting question. I think

05:59even in the 1950s and 60s when non-alignment was theoretically conceptualized, we see headwinds from the

06:06United States where the United States was not necessarily happy even in the 1960s. So you can draw

06:11similar parallels to today where last year President Trump said that he would impose tariffs on

06:18BRICS etc. So there is always considerable headwinds and in a sense the evolution like non-alignment,

06:25today's multipolarity is not similar to non-alignment but the evolution has happened.

06:30So countries want to remain autonomous from hedging between two powers and want to sustain their...

06:36I think there are some changes. There are some changes from the Cold War era to the post-Cold War

06:39era

06:40but some theoretical underpinnings of the non-aligned movement continue to influence today's

06:45multipolarity as well. So in this context we see that we see nations wanting to pursue a strategically

06:52autonomous policy. It's not that countries don't want to have strategic autonomy. I believe that all powers

06:59all countries want to have strategic autonomy because every country's decisions, every country has its

07:04own domestic constituents, every country has its own interests, every country wants energy affordability,

07:09every country has its long-term interests. So in this context every country wants to pursue strategic

07:14autonomy and want to be non-aligned to a certain extent but historical factors and alliance commitments

07:19always limit them from doing so. So in this context a lot of Asian states, given that the economic

07:26growth has happened only in the last 40-50 years, try their best to be autonomous from the global,

07:32from hedging between two powers etc. So I think the question about theoretically whether non-alignment

07:38having an influence on today's multipolarity, I think it does. I think a lot of the countries that

07:44were part of the non-aligned movement like for instance Egypt is a part of this today. So I think

07:48that is one way of looking at it that there is a lot of influences there and states are because

07:53of

07:53every time there is a political crisis or you know like a blockage in a strait, I think the countries

08:02in the east get more affected than countries in the west. For instance the Hormuz crisis has affected

08:06Southeast Asia and Asia considerably. So in this context I think platforms like BRICS become extremely

08:13relevant in articulating the visions for you know creating a alternative geoeconomic order which may

08:18be difficult in the short term but the ideation itself is the beginning of you know discussing a

08:24pathway to a new future. You have mentioned two very hot topics in my opinion I would like to focus

08:31a

08:32little. The first one, strategic autonomy. Some observers just say that India is adjusting its foreign policy

08:41policy and you told us, you explained us very well, but we have some recent frictions with the United

08:48States and so how do you see this strategic autonomy of India evolving in practice as we know that India

08:55is using a kind of pragmatic multilateralism. It's working very well until today and of course we are looking

09:04forward to bringing forward the BRICS summit in New Delhi that will give you know the line of the

09:10following year for lots of international relations, trade relations. So do you think that BRICS can offer

09:18to New Delhi a concrete alternative to for this strategic autonomy but also like you know new payment systems

09:26for example or technological cooperation or something that can make more truly sustainable the strategic

09:35autonomy for India or you still need and I want to sublime need the collective west to develop Indian society?

09:46That's a tough question but let me try to answer that. I think India needs the collective west

09:54in a sense because the collective west stands as technologically advanced societies and given that

10:01Indian Indians remain are connected with the west as well. There is a component of there's a component

10:07where India wants to strengthen its relationships with the west. This includes then this is for our

10:12own economic growth for our own economic growth and for our own economic development. So that's why as I

10:17said in my previous answer that India has a policy of strategic autonomy. However, this does not

10:23but this does not reflect that India undermines the BRICS or undermines new architectures.

10:29India continuously continues to reiterate that it wants to see a fair global order, that it wants

10:36to see a global order where probably a president doesn't get kidnapped or you know a country gets

10:42attacked. There are rules and regulations that a world has to follow and that international law

10:49is extremely important and for that platforms like BRICS become extremely important because particularly

10:54on climate negotiations countries in the global south and countries and Asian countries often have

11:00to suffer with the brunt of unfair laws of the WTO which is set by the global north. So in

11:05this context

11:06India advocates that the BRICS is a platform for the global south to advocate these issues. So India does not

11:12probably view the BRICS as how probably China or Russia would view it. India views the BRICS as a

11:17as a non-western platform and non-western platform where non-western issues are advocated. One of the

11:23biggest issues that India has is reform in the security council given that a lot of countries,

11:29the western countries interests shape the security council. India wants a non-western security council

11:34as well with the with India's participation, with Japan's participation, with Brazil's participation.

11:40So we see with and even if you if you include a component of the west even Germany's participation

11:45in into the into the security council. So India believes the India believes in that context.

11:50So where in that point in that context the relations with the west also becomes important

11:56the collective west for technological development and growth. At the same time the reform of the

12:00existing non-western order also the western order also remains a considerable priority for India. So

12:07in that context India does not see BRICS as like you know an exclusionary block is an inclusive block

12:14that talks about talks about new developments to ensure that there is strategic autonomy to ensure

12:19that states have equity in the discussions of climate of economics and as you said the alternative

12:25payment structures etc today they may not be significant like the BRICS development bank etc which

12:30may have very low finances and if you look at alternative payment structures like the Chinese

12:35CIPS it processes about 12 billion transactions or 12 billion dollars worth of trade or 15 billion dollars

12:41worth of trade per year. This is data from the last three years but even though it's insignificant

12:46in comparison to SWIFT but over the years if we see that if states come together and states cooperate

12:53on you know and cooperate together on club on you know these kind of economic projects it's likely that

13:00in years to come the funding the financing and you know the support will increase so in this context

13:05BRICS remains a very interesting prospect from India standpoint. It's very interesting insights thank you

13:12um you another thing that I want to focus in is the key words of the recent days straight of

13:19hormones

13:20as we know we have again a new conflict ongoing uh the memorandum of understanding has been cut

13:30and we know that all of this is affecting also India for its import export because of the traffic also

13:37for the Indian sea uh as we know that is the natural sea that we have going outside from the

13:43uh the gulf um do you think

13:46and this is just a very question outside of the general context we just discussed that India could play

13:53as a kind of balanced um neutral uh player in this battle between United States and Israel and uh Iran

14:06or not

14:07because um previously we had the Pakistan who tried to do that uh as we see uh it worked but

14:15just for a while

14:17now maybe we need some non-aligned and neutral countries and the neighbor one is India so do you

14:25think that maybe the government of New Delhi would consider to join in this game and start to play a

14:34key

14:34role uh I'm not sure about what the government has spoken so far but I'm certain that India like if

14:41you

14:41look at the matter structurally it looks like India is in a position to you know uh talk to all

14:47parties

14:47for instance India shares conducive ties with Israel uh India shares good relations with the United States

14:53India shares good relations with Iran even even though there is a perception that India has not

14:58and at the same time India's key strategic partner in the Middle East the UAE India shares good relations with

15:03them also so in this context India has no bilateral issues with any of these countries

15:07countries so uh even though with Pakistan's best efforts I think uh India could offer its negotiating

15:14platforms if uh uh if if it if need be but in this context I see that even though the

15:20crisis has uh

15:21the crisis has impacted us significantly like if uh because the crisis is closer to home for us

15:26because it's the Indian Ocean as you see so uh with the the disruption of maritime ship with the sea

15:32lines of communication and the destruction of ships the price of uh the price of oil increases in India

15:39so it becomes a key concern and uh so uh the resolution of hostilities in the state of Hormuz

15:45remains a core priority for India in this in this context and I think in this context diplomatic efforts

15:51um the diploma India can offer positive India can offer support in diplomatic negotiations etc because

15:57our stance has been the same since the first day that we want these hostilities to stop

16:04sure so uh thank you thank you so much and let's go back to the main topic and you live

16:10and work in

16:11Moscow um how is the relationship with India perceived in Russia today um especially you know with the

16:19changing world order and growing BRICS cooperation uh what is the real status of Russia and India cooperation

16:25and partnership and also for what you've seen growing in the recent years okay so the India-Russia

16:34relations in my opinion his uh is a relationship that is growing even even with the perceived interest

16:40that India is going closer to the collectivist Russia remains a key strategic partner for India

16:44the first observation that I had uh arriving in Moscow for a longer time was that I saw that the

16:51labor

16:51cooperation that India and Russia agreed upon is now in the works we see a significant number of Indian

16:56workers participating in the labor force in in Moscow so that's one of the observations that I've had

17:03otherwise we see that the economic relationship since 2022 has grown considerably we see that trade

17:08has increased from 12 billion dollars in a calendar year to about 46 or 46 billion dollars the next year

17:14and today it stands at 60 60 plus billion dollars so we see that economically as well the trade has

17:20increased at the same time at the same time we see strategically Russia being cognizant of India's

17:26strategic interests India Russia even though is very close to China today offers India critical

17:32platforms such as the S 400 or and even offers joint technology production um joint production etc so in that

17:40context the India Russia relationship which was forged during the cold war uh is is similar today even

17:46though it does not have the alliance commitments like it did during the cold war but it's an extremely

17:50uh both sides perceive the relationship to be very important so I think uh there is a lot of uh

17:56there is

17:57considerable promise in the India Russia relationship for further growth especially in the economic realm

18:01because uh like in the cold war and in the early post cold war years military relationship was very

18:07important in the India Russia relationship but with uh India strengthening its own domestic production

18:12capabilities and defense and exporting critical platforms from the west I think the number of

18:18Russian weapons that we import have reduced considerably so in this context Russia is going to be important in

18:23in the sense that India wants to strengthen its economic cooperation with Russia Russia is a huge market

18:28Russia is a huge country so there is only there is considerable promise for growth in my opinion

18:33of the India Russia relationship yeah thank you so much um um um just let's focus a little bit you

18:40know um as we know the brick summit could speed up the reform of global financial institutions and uh

18:47that's a very hot topic we're talking about dollar you know petrodollar the power of dollar

18:51so um the summit will include the new payment systems and mechanisms uh that offer alternatives to the US dollar

19:00um

19:00what are India's expectations for this change so in in all honesty uh the alternative to the US dollar uh

19:10may not

19:11like as in a BRICS currency will not gain will not gain traction this time however we see that uh

19:17the the nature of

19:18payments have changed in in recent years for instance if you look at even the Hormuz crisis uh countries for

19:25instance even

19:25West Asian countries were not accepting payments in dollars some of them wanted payments in dirhams or

19:30yuan so we see this churn happening uh and and I wouldn't say this is attributed solely to BRICS but

19:36generally that countries uh the other reserve currencies are cropping up for instance you see the Chinese

19:43yuan uh that's increasing the share of the Chinese yuan in global trading has increased from one percent to

19:50you know five percent in the last few years so which is quite significant even though the US dollar

19:55constitutes more than 70 percent of the global financial transactions or 80 percent as some would

19:59argue uh we see that other currencies non-western currencies such as the dirhams or the yuan

20:04yuan coming up and that is one of the that's one interesting uh aspect that which can be attributed to

20:10the BRICS itself because the BRICS keeps advocating for these things the BRICS um so so even even in the

20:16case of

20:17oil I think uh considering that there are hostilities in the state of Hormuz and uh and what happened in

20:22Venezuela etc I think BRICS uh would talk about geopolitics this time when a topic which was not

20:28explored uh throughout in BRICS may receive considerable attention and also I think BRICS offers a

20:34offers a very interesting especially in today's scenario with US sanctions um which increased considerably

20:40in the last one calendar year against Russia I think aspects like insurance shipping uh and maritime

20:46security maritime security etc have a very interesting ambit within BRICS so these discussion

20:52points can emerge in the BRICS where some things can be eased between between consumers and between

20:58merchants to ensure that there is some degree of transactions etc so in this context I think BRICS

21:04emerges as a very uh interesting important platform but at the same time India and other non-western

21:10BRICS states like Brazil for instance remain skeptical that BRICS is just all talk and you know it doesn't

21:15deliver on things because in the end of the day the majority of the financial resources remain

21:20consolidated by the west and the elites in all of these countries South Africa India Brazil are are

21:26geared towards the western markets and you know Europe and America for instance so these concerns

21:30always remain in BRICS because let me ask you also a question exactly on this path and about the future

21:38because India is uh becoming a global leader in digital public infrastructure so like the UPI payment

21:46system so do you see that this Indian model um being adopted by over BRICS countries uh could this

21:56technological cooperation become one of the next big pillars of BRICS alongside of course politics and

22:04international trade Lorenzo theoretically it is it is very much possible but then as UPI is one of the

22:11most efficient ways of transacting uh in 2016 with the introduction of UPI uh Indians overnight changed the

22:18way they their relationship with money for instance for instance India was 10 years a decade ago India was a

22:23cash economy and for a country like India which whose per capita income is around two thousand three thousand

22:28dollars uh digital digital digital payment infrastructure was a very big step in the revolution

22:34and in the last 10 years as per my calculations I think 14 countries accept uh unified payments

22:41UPI system so uh theoretically if if UPI were to work in BRICS in the with BRICS mechanism it would

22:49be ideal

22:49however uh the UPI or you know any uh the payments in a sense is controlled by the central bank

22:56of India

22:56India and uh dealing with sanctioned entities uh would be a bit difficult under under grip under even

23:02under the even under a framework such as BRICS for instance even in the past India tried its attempts

23:08at making you know ensuring some transaction mechanisms between India and Russia through the

23:13introduction of rupee payments rupees are domestic uh visa equivalent basically and it did not it did not

23:19work so I think in that sense uh till the war in Ukraine persists and other factors persist it becomes

23:26difficult for things like UPI to take forward because UPI works on the swift system and Indians rely

23:32majorly on the swift system so maybe we could maybe an alternative can be found in the Chinese versions

23:38or the Russian SFPS system but that remains difficult in the short term but in the longer term these

23:44discussions sound promising as you may not know the situations in years to come they may be considerable

23:50promise there thank you uh I would really add just one final question um it's mentioning quoting some

23:58of your worst previous words uh India is often called itself as the voice of the global south do you

24:04think

24:04that BRICS can be a platform able to amplify this voice and uh especially look forward the western institutions

24:16absolutely I think that the whole concept of the voice of the global south is uh the mainstay of

24:22India's engagement in the BRICS and India's engagement uh like foreign like India's engagement in for the

24:28global south begins not not in with the inception of BRICS in the late 2010s in the in the early

24:342000s

24:35but we see that India's engagement with the global south emerging as a pillar even during the cold war

24:41if you look at the Indian for one of the core tenets of Indian foreign policy was India stood against

24:45the

24:45decolonial movement in the 19 in in during the late half latter half of the 20th century so this

24:51continues even today a legacy of that continues even today that India believes and articulates for a fair

24:57global order and uh talks about you know uh and talks about uh talks about uh talks about engaging with

25:03the global south this includes in climate this includes an economy it includes in uh energy security and

25:09human security for instance so voice of the global south remains remains a penultimate like a critical

25:14pillar in India's engagement with the BRICS much more so than in the question of payments etc because

25:20India believes that uh unlike unlike other countries or European countries or even for instance in Asian

25:26country like China their perception in African countries and Latin American countries about BRICS

25:31about India is that India remains a fair arbiter in the international system and that India will

25:37represent their interests uh and India will represent their interests this is because Indian none of the

25:42Indian uh firms or Indian industries are exploitative towards third world countries uh or you know

25:48these countries so it's always represented the interest in such in such a fashion so i think voice

25:54of the global south remains very critical for India that that participation of the after the African

25:59union or the interests of uh the interests of these countries are adequately represented so BRICS as a

26:04platform for India is very important in that case for global south countries

26:09Siddharth thank you so much for your time for your beautiful insights because your perspective as

26:16researchers is very valuable for our audience and uh to all our listeners uh and for you which are watching

26:24FIGBRICS thank you so much you remember that we are an independent platform so please

26:30like share and comment below and give us your perspective thank you so much everybody and see

26:36you to the next episode goodbye

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