"BRICS Summit and India's Foreign Policy Trajectory"
Strategic autonomy
A foreign-policy stance preserving independent decision-making across partners.
Multi-alignment
Pursuing simultaneous, diversified partnerships to maximise national interest.
BRICS began as a forum of major emerging economies intended to give developing countries a stronger voice in global governance. The first summit met in Yekaterinburg and the grouping later institutionalised development-finance options such as the New Development Bank (NDB) under the Fortaleza Declaration. BRICS membership widened so the platform now includes 10 members, reflecting both geographic expansion and a greater mix of policy orientations. The grouping has long been attractive to India because it offers a multilateral venue to press for institutional reform, greater voice in the United Nations, alternative development finance, and mechanisms that reduce dependence on Western-dominated systems such as SWIFT and the dollar system.
India’s post-Cold War foreign policy settled on strategic autonomy and multi-alignment: maintain partnerships with Western democracies while engaging non-Western powers. This approach balances access to technology and capital with the political space to resist policy prescriptions perceived as biased toward developed states. BRICS sits alongside other platforms, bilateral ties, the Quad, I2U2, forming a diversified external engagement toolkit.
BRICS functions as a political and economic platform rather than a security alliance. Its declarations are consensus texts that reflect member heterogeneity: members range from states openly adversarial to the West to those integrated economically with Western institutions. Institutional instruments associated with BRICS include the NDB and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, and recurrent BRICS proposals include a payment mechanism aimed at reducing reliance on the dollar (commonly called de-dollarisation measures).
Consensus rules shape what a joint declaration can say. Multilateral text often uses carefully chosen phrases, such as opposing “unilateral coercive measures”, to signal positions without direct bilateral naming. …
The 'Fortaleza Declaration', recently in the news, is related to the affairs of
Energy security constitutes the dominant kingpin of India's foreign policy, and is linked with India's overarching influence in Middle Eastern countries. How would you integrate energy security with India's foreign policy trajectories in the coming years? (250 words)
How will I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and USA) grouping transform India's position in global politics? (250 words)
Consider the following statements about BRICS and its institutional outcomes:
1.The New Development Bank (NDB) was announced at the Fortaleza Declaration.
2.BRICS held its first summit at Yekaterinburg.
3.BRICS expanded membership to 10 countries under the Kazan chairship.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following pattern changes was reported for the New Delhi BRICS declaration compared to prior recent summits?
Which of the following is a commonly stated objective in BRICS declarations and associated proposals?
Which of the following describes a key institutional instrument created under BRICS for development finance?
In multilateral communiqués, the phrase 'unilateral coercive measures' most directly criticises which practice?
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