ECONOMYNEXT – India is set to take over the BRICS presidency in 2026 amidst global upheavals in the areas of trade and geopolitics. On the one hand are US-imposed tariffs on its trading partners globally, and on the other, cross-border tensions between some BRICS member states. The problem is confounded by US President Donald Trump’s recent threat of 10 per cent tariffs on any nation that aligns with BRICS.
For decades, India has played a careful balancing act when dealing with global challenges. However, that strategy may be sorely tested when it takes on the BRICS leadership. Says Dr D Dhanuraj, Founder and Chair of the Centre for Public Policy Research, India, “The I in BRICS is very important, will it be for you, we or all humanity? India’s position is very important for the very survival and success of BRICS.”
Speaking at a web talk on “Navigating BRICS: India’s Strategic Outlook and the Global South Agenda” on July 18, 2025, co-hosted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) South Asia and the Centre for Public Policy Research, Dr Dhanuraj states that India favours the dollar as the BRICS currency, while China pushes for the Yuan (renminbi) to be the currency of choice. “A bilateral currency is preferred, rather than a BRICS currency,” he adds. India has also had to contend with border clashes and other territorial issues, more so since 2020.
There is also the notion that China is attempting to bring in more of its ‘friendly’ nations as BRICS members.
In June this year, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh met on their own, which Dr Dhanuraj terms as an attempt to ‘form an alternative to the dysfunctional SAARC.” Another concern that is bound to add to India’s worries.
Moderated by Soumya Chaturvedi, Visiting Fellow, India Foundation, the panel included Prof Dr Carlos Lima Lucas- Professor of Public International Law, Federal University Minas Gerais, Brazil and Prof Dr Miriam Prys-Hansen, Lead Research Fellow, Head of Research Programme ‘Global Orders and Foreign Policies’, German Institute for Global and Area Studies. Guest speaker Torsten Herbst, a former member of the German Bundestag, explained that Germany considers India an important economic partner, adding that the tariffs imposed by the US has resulted in the European Union considering free trade agreements with non-traditional developing nations. He hopes that BRICS would contribute to a functional international order.
Despite the tensions, Dr Dhanuraj says India is reasserting itself as a champion for the global south and will also be a leading voice on climate change, an issue negatively impacting most BRICS member states.
Rather than disrupt the world order, it will apply the same strategy as its foreign policy, and concentrate on bilateral treaties, multilateralism and improving digital infrastructure. India will be in a position to leverage its growing economy to seek stakeholder investments. He opines that India’s presidency will see the issue of reforming the IMF and the World Bank being taken up again, and more support for the New Development Bank set up by BRICS nearly a decade ago.
There will, however, be no compromises in dealing with terrorism.
The US tariffs has united a once divided Brazil, says Dr Lucs, adding that BRICS too is in a similar reactionary mood.
Brazil holds the current BRICS presidency.
BRICS has prioritised addressing their challenges rather than “change the world order,” says Dr Lucas, explaining that the summit held in Brazil this year resulted in a more structured outcome where member states agreed on a “common framework on climate change, Artificial Intelligence and eliminating socially determined diseases.” While he is hopeful the group would “stop its double standards on issues and define what it means by expansionism,” Dr Lucas says BRICS should work towards creating an international model, a secretariat at least, “with specific powers, rules and procedures that would have a greater impact on areas they agree on.”
While it took on an aggressive tone under the Russian presidency, Brazil has adopted a more conciliatory attitude, which might also be the route India takes, opines Dr Prys-Hansen. However, India cannot ‘sit on the fence if it wants to make a real global footprint,’ and must, at least on some issues, pick a side, she points out.
BRICS is one of many multilateral platforms India uses, says Dr Prys-Hansen, wondering about the group’s future, if China succeeds in bringing in Pakistan as a member. “Will BRICS end?” she asks, pointing out that India-China relations are crucial for BRICS future. She adds that member states have shared expectations and challenges, and “will remain relevant as long as members have some benefit from it.”
Fossil fuels, she points out, have a big impact on many of the BRICS countries, and if climate change is to be resolved, this aspect must be addressed, even if contentious issues such as a common currency are put on the back bench.
Dr Prys-Hensen is also critical of the two-tier structure, which allows voting powers for member countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia), but not for partner nations, pointing out that it is a situation, that may backfire some day.
The web talk included a video message by Dr Marcus Faber, a former member of the German Bundestag and a Chair of the Defence Committee. He expressed concern that India was a part of BRICS alongside “dictatorships such as Russia and China” rather than aligning itself with nations that held “more value-based interests.”
(Colombo/July24/2025)