In a fragmented world order, how can India use BRICS to advance Global South interests while balancing its ties with the West?

BRICS now has 11 members, and India held its fourth Chairship in 2026 [2]. The members together account for nearly half the world's population and about 40% of global GDP [3]. As the world splits into rival blocs, India can use this weight to push for reform of global rules without joining the anti-Western camp.

Advancing Global South interests

• Global governance reform: The New Delhi Declaration calls for meaningful IMF quota realignment under the 17th General Review of Quotas [1]. In it, China and Russia support a greater UN role for India and Brazil [1]. India should turn this support into concrete steps on the UNSC, where both hold permanent seats under Article 23 [5].
• Cheaper cross-border payments: India should back the BRICS Payment Task Force's work on interoperable payment systems [1]. It can also expand RBI's Special Rupee Vostro arrangement for settling trade in rupees [4]. Both lower currency-conversion costs for developing partners.
• Resilient supply chains: India has already pressed for dismantling export controls among BRICS members [7]. It should spread critical-mineral and manufacturing supply chains across several members so that no single member can use supply as leverage.
• Development finance: India should push the NDB to lend more in local currencies and to admit more members [1]. This would widen credit for Southern infrastructure.

Balancing ties with the West

• Reformist, not revisionist: The Declaration supports a quota-based IMF at the centre of the global financial safety net [1]. India's aim is to reform the Bretton Woods institutions, not to replace them.
• Consensus rule as a shield: Every text needs the agreement of all members. India can use this to keep criticism general. For example, the Declaration condemns unilateral coercive measures in the language of international law and does not name any country [1].
• Calibrated vocabulary: RBI presents rupee settlement as a way to grow global trade and exports [4]. Using the same framing helps India stay clear of the politics of de-dollarisation.
• Parallel partnerships: India's active role in the Quad [6] shows multi-alignment in practice. BRICS sits alongside India's Western partnerships and does not replace them.

India's approach therefore works on two tracks: it uses BRICS to amplify Southern demands on finance, payments and supply chains, and it keeps its Western partnerships intact. If India pairs this with measurable targets, such as the share of intra-BRICS trade settled in local currencies, it can show results. That would make it a bridge between the developed and developing world and advance a fairer, rules-based multilateral order in line with SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).