India
oh-Ashish Rana
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said India must ensure that BRICS remains a platform independent from Western countries but should not become openly anti-Western.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said India should maintain BRICS independence but not be anti-Western, giving priority to its national interests and the issues of the global South. He stressed that hosting BRICS offers prestige and platform opportunities, as well as important bilateral meetings, despite group issues and trade concerns.
India must maintain its own approach to BRICS
According to Tharoor, the BRICS countries may prefer to use the grouping as an anti-Western platform, but India has other national interests that should be protected.
Talking to the media, the former Minister of State for External Affairs said that hosting the BRICS summit is a matter of “great prestige” for India. He also noted that many world leaders, including presidents and prime ministers of BRICS countries, visit India.
Tharoor said that as Chair, India has a special responsibility to demonstrate the concerns of countries in the Global South while taking India’s direct national interests very carefully into account.
“We want BRICS to be a non-Western, but not an anti-Western forum. This is not exactly the same agenda as in any other country. There are others in BRICS who are very happy to perceive it as a geopolitical non-Western but at the same time anti-Western platform,” said a senior Congress leader.
“And I would like to say that this will not be in India’s national interest,” he added.
Modi’s bilateral meetings with world leaders
Tharoor noted that important bilateral talks will be held with several world leaders in India.
“Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) will definitely meet each of the visiting heads of state and government who are seeking a meeting. And this could mean a dozen important meetings with the leaders of these countries.
“And for us, of course, both the meeting with President Xi and the meeting with President Putin will grab global headlines,” he said, adding that there will be other key important meetings.
Tharoor expressed concern over India-China relations
On India-China relations, Tharoor said that the difficulties in the relationship were purely on one side as after the Galwan tragedy in 2020, relations between the two countries were in a completely bad state.
“And on top of that, the Chinese are taking many actions that can only be considered hostile. They are trying in various parts to change the real situation along the border, along the undefined border between our two countries.
“They made statements that we cannot consider useful. They were very strict on issues like visas for Indians, accidentally rejecting many of them,” Tharoor said.
And worst of all, the Chinese used a lot of trade leverage, meaning they exploited Indian importers’ dependence on many key Chinese goods to simply hold on to those goods when it suited them, he said.
India must defend its interests
“A self-respecting India will not continue to submit to these things. I think it’s important to understand that we will also fend for ourselves in one way or another.
“So yes, the bilateral relationship, the bilateral meeting is potentially very important, but what we are looking for is a little more flexibility, understanding and friendship on the Chinese side than they have shown us over the last six years,” he said.
BRICS offers a platform for the global South
Tharoor said that through the BRICS summit, India is providing an important platform for the Global South.
“This group, the 11 BRICS countries, represents the majority of the world’s population and 41 percent of global GDP. This is no small matter; this should be taken very seriously by the rest of the world. Secondly, of course, the presence of a dozen heads of state and government, not only BRICS members, but also some observers coming to the presidential and prime ministerial level, is a matter of great prestige for us,” he said.
“This demonstrates a certain diplomatic unifying force, which in itself has value on the world stage,” said the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
Finding common ground can be challenging
Listing the issues, Tharoor said it was difficult to find common ground on, for example, an agreed declaration on global issues.
“When the foreign ministers tried to meet in the summer, they could not agree on the Iran-Iraq war, the Russian-Ukrainian war and so on, on how to express a collective opinion. And it wouldn’t be easy.
“When the foreign ministers met, we ended up with India as chairman issuing a chairman’s declaration rather than an agreed upon joint declaration. Will it happen again, which some may see as a failure and perhaps even a sign of the group’s fundamental inconsistency, or can we iron out the differences? This will be a real challenge for our diplomats,” Tharoor said.
Trade imbalance between BRICS countries
Talking about practical matters, the Congress leader said that trade among the BRICS countries is growing, but much to the detriment of India as its exports to the BRICS countries have decreased and imports have increased, which should be seen as an improvement.
US sanctions and Indian trade opportunities
“There are other problems – you know, the Americans currently have a law signed by President (Donald) Trump that allows him to impose 100 percent sanctions if we continue to trade with Russia. Now you and I know that if there are 100 percent sanctions and every Indian product is sanctioned, it will not be viable in the American market,” Tharoor said.
“So, can we use this platform to diversify our export markets, diversify our communication channels? If our friendship with America is proving so unpredictable and unstable, don’t we need other options, other doors and windows open to other countries? These are all issues that concern us very much,” he said.