Is India disrupting the Russia-China game? – A new political bloc against the West

“India does not want to turn BRICS into a political bloc against the West. New Delhi primarily views the organization as a platform for economic cooperation and seeks to maintain strategic relations with the United States.”

TodayPress TV reports that political analyst Elkhan Shahinoglu made the remarks while commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s three-day visit to India to attend the BRICS summit and hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to him, while Russia and China view BRICS more as a geopolitical platform, the approaches of India and Brazil are different:

“Although New Delhi is interested in expanding cooperation within BRICS, it does not intend to allow the organization to turn into an anti-Western platform. One of the main reasons for India’s position is that the country’s economic development is heavily dependent on relations with the West. The United States is not only India’s largest market, but also an important source of capital, technology and investment. China and Russia cannot fully replace these opportunities.”

The analyst noted that New Delhi is also dissatisfied with Washington’s tariff policy:

“India supports maintaining multilateral trade rules within BRICS and establishing more stable mechanisms in international trade. It is also not particularly receptive to the idea of BRICS creating a common currency. New Delhi instead supports expanding settlements in national currencies and facilitating cross-border payments.”

According to the expert, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s participation in the BRICS summit will bring the dynamics of relations among Russia, China and India within the organization into sharper focus. However, it is unrealistic to expect these meetings to result in BRICS developing a unified geopolitical position.

“New Delhi will continue pursuing a multi-vector foreign policy by developing its relations with both BRICS and the West in parallel,” Elkhan Shahinoglu concluded.

Jala Rovshan