ABSTRACT
New Delhi’s policy towards BRICS is a subset of India’s politics of regional and geo-political balancing. Therefore, it needs to be located in the larger context of the way India views the world, and its strategies to safeguard its interests. Its a part of India’s ‘multi-alignment’ strategy which presupposes partnerships with world’s major powers short of a military alliance. Unable to develop its own brand of multilateralism, its seeks to align with powerful states that matter to its economic and security interests.
The chapter answers three key questions to understand India’s engagement with BRICS: how does this organisation fit into New Delhi’s scheme of geopolitical balancing? What are the major objectives pursued through this organisation? And finally, what are India’s concerns and dilemmas at BRICS?
The chapter is largely descriptive with occasional analysis of events and policies. For data, it relies largely on discourses and debates that happen at the level of policy making and among experts in India.
