The Many Suns of a Multipolar Age: India and the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

India’s role within BRICS remains uniquely complex and strategically significant. Unlike several members, New Delhi simultaneously maintains close partnerships with Western democracies while strongly advocating multipolarity and Global South solidarity. This dual positioning allows India to function as both a bridge and a balancing power.

In an era of collapsing certainties, BRICS is emerging as the political symbol of multipolarity, and this became evident during the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in New Delhi on 14 and 15 May 2026 under India’s chairship. The gathering comes at a time when wars, economic disruptions, technological rivalries, and institutional distrust are rapidly reshaping global politics.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired the meeting attended by Foreign Ministers and senior delegations from BRICS member and partner countries, including Russia, Brazil, Iran, South Africa, Indonesia, and the UAE. The delegates also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signalling the strategic importance India has attached to the forum.

The conference theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, may sound conventionally diplomatic on paper, yet it speaks directly to the language of multilateralism in a fragmented world. Rising food prices, disrupted supply chains, shrinking jobs, and uncertain futures continue to haunt societies across continents, and the meeting in New Delhi sought to examine whether emerging powers can build a more balanced global order as the old one weakens under mounting pressure.

The world order is no longer a rigid pyramid of power but a colourful mosaic of distinct aspirations. Countries want flexibility instead of alignment, thus they seek partnerships without dependency. BRICS has emerged as one of the clearest political expressions of that global mood.

From Economic Bloc to Political Force

What began as a coalition of emerging economies has gradually evolved into a far broader geopolitical platform encompassing ten full members. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, and Indonesia together represent nearly 46 percent of the world’s population and more than one-third of global GDP measured in purchasing power parity. 

These numbers reveal the scale of the political transition unfolding in world affairs. BRICS today stretches across Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eurasia, and West Asia, covering key maritime corridors like the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea routes, the Indian Ocean region, and crucial Indo-Pacific sea lanes.

The inclusion of Iran and the UAE in the same grouping reflects both the ambition and contradictions of an expanded BRICS. Rivals and competitors with sharply different strategic priorities now sit at the same diplomatic table, prompting analysts to describe the bloc as a platform of “strategic pluralism” rather than ideological uniformity.

The reason lies in the very nature of BRICS itself. The grouping does not function like a military alliance or a rigid political bloc. India, for instance, maintains deep engagement with the United States and Europe while simultaneously advocating multipolarity. China remains locked in strategic competition with Washington. Russia continues to face sweeping Western sanctions. Iran remains at odds with the US-Israel axis, while the UAE sustains close ties with both Western and Asian powers.

Even after the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes between Indian and Chinese troops, both countries continued engaging through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, highlighting the grouping’s unusual nature. Countries with deep strategic rivalries still recognise the value of participating in the same multilateral framework. The bloc’s greatest strength, its diversity, is also its hardest diplomatic test.

The Battle Over Global Governance

Dr Jaishankar Chaired the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting

The strongest undercurrent running through the New Delhi meeting was dissatisfaction with the existing architecture of global governance. Institutions such as the United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank still reflect post-1945 power structures that many developing countries believe no longer represent contemporary realities.

This frustration has deep historical roots. During the global financial crises of the late 2000s and early 2010s, emerging economies repeatedly argued that the IMF disproportionately favoured Western powers despite the growing economic weight of Asia and the Global South. Even today, the United States alone retains veto power in major IMF decisions because of its voting share. That imbalance became one of the driving political impulses behind BRICS-led institutions such as the New Development Bank (NDB).

Since its establishment, the NDB has approved infrastructure and sustainable development projects worth more than USD 35 billion. For many developing countries, this institution symbolises not just financing but an attempt to create alternatives within a global financial order often seen as unequal.

The grouping has consistently pushed for reforms in the UN Security Council, IMF quota structures, and voting mechanisms within major financial institutions. The demand is practical because it is backed by economic weight and demographic influence.

India has played a particularly active role in amplifying these concerns. Under India’s G20 Presidency, the African Union was granted permanent membership in the G20, a move widely interpreted as New Delhi’s effort to institutionalise Global South representation within major governance platforms.

Economic Security Has Become National Security

One of the defining themes of the New Delhi deliberations has been resilience, particularly in the context of how wars and pandemics have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. A disruption in shipping routes in one region now rapidly affects inflation, fuel prices, and industrial production thousands of kilometres away.

Dr Jaishankar highlighted concerns related to food security, energy affordability, fertiliser shortages, and healthcare vulnerabilities, noting that these issues are deeply tied to the vulnerabilities of developing economies, where economic shocks often directly affect political stability and social cohesion.

India’s chairship has attempted to push BRICS beyond symbolic declarations. New Delhi wants the grouping to focus on fintech-enabled inclusion, MSME financing, digital public infrastructure, healthcare partnerships, and innovation-driven growth, with an emphasis on practical cooperation rather than grand ideological posturing.

BRICS is influential because its member countries collectively possess some of the world’s largest reserves of hydrocarbons, agricultural resources, rare earth minerals, and strategic commodities. In an age defined by energy transitions and technological competition, control over such resources increasingly translates into geopolitical influence.

That explains why supply chains and maritime routes received major attention during the conference. Energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz and commercial shipping routes in the Red Sea now carry strategic importance far beyond regional politics, and disruptions in these corridors can affect everything from household electricity bills to global food prices.

India’s emphasis on safe and unimpeded maritime flows reflects a broader recognition that economic security and national security have become inseparable.

Climate, Technology and the New Politics of Equity

Prime Minister Modi Attended the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting

Climate governance emerged as another critical pillar of discussion in New Delhi, as India reiterated its longstanding position that climate negotiations must remain anchored in equity and “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Developing nations argue that sustainability transitions cannot come at the cost of their growth aspirations.

For BRICS countries, climate justice is deeply tied to developmental justice, and the debate now extends beyond emissions targets into issues such as climate financing, technology access, energy transitions, and policy flexibility for emerging economies still grappling with poverty and infrastructure deficits.

Technology governance has become equally central to the future distribution of global power. As Artificial intelligence, cyber governance, semiconductor access, and digital infrastructure increasingly shape geopolitical influence, many BRICS nations are exploring frameworks for technological cooperation that reduce dependence on Western-controlled digital ecosystems while encouraging inclusive innovation.

India's experience with digital public infrastructure has attracted international attention over the past decade. Through platforms focused on digital payments and public service delivery, India has attempted to demonstrate how technology can support large-scale inclusion rather than deepen inequality.

India’s Balancing Act

India’s role within BRICS remains uniquely complex and strategically significant. Unlike several members, New Delhi simultaneously maintains close partnerships with Western democracies while strongly advocating multipolarity and Global South solidarity. This dual positioning allows India to function as both a bridge and a balancing power.

The balancing role becomes especially important because internal contradictions within BRICS are likely to intensify as the grouping expands further. Regional tensions involving Iran, Russia, China, the Gulf, and the West could easily create diplomatic friction.

India’s emphasis on dialogue and institutional coordination reflects a growing recognition that expansion without coherence could weaken BRICS from within, and that effective consensus management will ultimately determine whether the grouping evolves into a durable geopolitical force or remains an ambitious yet fragmented coalition.

The New Delhi meeting has become a test for the emerging multipolar order ahead of the next BRICS summit. In a deeply uncertain world, emerging powers are no longer content being passive stakeholders in inherited systems. They seek greater voice and greater influence in shaping the rules of the twenty-first century.

Whether BRICS can successfully channel those aspirations into stable institutions remains uncertain. What is already clear, however, is that the centre of gravity in global politics is shifting with India at the heart of that transition.