Following India’s successful G20 presidency from December 2022 to November 2023, India’s BRICS presidency for 2026 heralds new opportunities, coming at a time of great global flux. India has declared its focus for BRICS as “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability”—a clever juxtaposition of the BRICS acronym, theming its presidency on “Humanity First” and Global South Leadership. During its presidency, India intends to focus on the twin pillars of global governance: political and security, and economic and financial. While a year is too short to make fundamental shifts in the world order, the present global upheaval, in which the institutions of global governance are coming under increasing strain, is a good time to shape policies that will have a long-term impact on the emerging world order.
The West has dominated global institutions since the end of World War II, primarily because the Western bloc created the systems of global governance, both political and economic, and the rest of the world followed. However, as economic gravitas shifts from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific and the Global South rises, the earlier monetary structures in which the Dollar held sway and the West controlled the narrative are no longer seen as universally applicable or acceptable. While change is inevitable, it is logical to expect that the West, which has benefited from the old order, will resist it. That is a challenge that New Delhi will have to address.
While New Delhi does not view the BRICS as an anti-Western bloc or a substitute for the existing global order, it recognises the need to rebalance global governance structures to reflect contemporary realities. To some in the West, however, the BRICS is seen as an anti-Western bloc. India will have to be mindful of this dichotomy and allay Western fears in this regard, while at the same time pushing the BRICS towards issue-based cooperation. While making efforts to avoid an antagonistic relationship with Western powers, it will also have to work to secure a more equitable role for the Global South in governance and financial structures.
India will likely focus on exerting its influence to reform global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, while avoiding the creation of blocs like NATO, which could lead to another Cold War. Towards that end, de-dollarisation is unlikely to be on the agenda. Instead, the focus will be on strengthening the New Development Bank (NDB), expanding local-currency trade mechanisms, and improving access to climate and infrastructure finance. This does not mean decoupling from the dollar system, but rather ensuring that unilateral freezing of funds through systems such as SWIFT cannot be used to curtail the sovereign decisions of countries in the Global South. In addition, there will likely be a push to shape global norms through digital public infrastructure.
On governance issues, the United Nations no longer holds sway as a body capable of ensuring the peaceful settlement of disputes or whose decisions will be universally accepted. While it is too early to sound the death knell for the world body, there is a strong case for internal reforms that are more inclusive and reflect current geostrategic and geo-economic realities. Why India, with the world’s largest population and currently the fourth-largest economy by GDP, is not a member of the Security Council is an issue that needs to be addressed. Paradoxically, some NATO members strongly favour expanding the Security Council to include India as a permanent member. That push, however, is opposed by China, a member of BRICS!
India’s BRICS presidency will be a challenge and will also present multiple opportunities. The determinant of success will, in all probability, depend on how far India advances the BRICS agenda towards cooperation rather than confrontation.
Author Brief Bio: Maj. Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch is Editor, India Foundation Journal and Director, India Foundation.
