For years, Western critics have dismissed Brics as a relatively insignificant entity.

But last week, at its annual summit in Russia, the group triumphantly showed how far it has come.

Top leaders from 36 countries, as well as the UN Secretary-General, attended the three-day event and Brics officially welcomed four new members – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. More membership expansions may follow soon. Brics has previously added only one new member – South Africa in 2010 – since its establishment (as Bric states) in 2006.

There is growing buzz around BRICS, which has long been projected as an alternative to Western-led models of global governance. Today, it is becoming more prominent and influential as it capitalizes on growing discontent with Western financial policies and structures.

Ironically, India – perhaps the most western Brics member – is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the group’s evolution and expansion.

India enjoys close ties with most of the new Brics members. Egypt is a growing trade and security partner in the Middle East. The UAE (along with Saudi Arabia, which has been offered Brics membership but has yet to formally join) is one of India’s most important partners overall. India’s relationship with Ethiopia is one of the longest and closest in Africa.

The original members of Brics continue to provide important benefits for India as well.

Delhi can use Brics to signal its continued commitment to close friend Russia, despite Western efforts to isolate it. And cooperation with rival China in Brics is helping India in its slow and cautious effort to ease tensions with Beijing, particularly following a border patrol deal announced by Delhi on the eve of the summit. This announcement probably gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi the necessary diplomatic and political space meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the edge of the summit.

Additionally, Brics allows India to advance the core foreign policy principle of strategic autonomy, whereby it aims to balance relations with a broad spectrum of geopolitical actors without formally allying itself with any of them.

Delhi has important partnerships, both bilateral and multilateral, within and outside the West. In this regard, its presence in an increasingly robust Bric and relations with its members can be balanced with its participation in a revitalized Indo-Pacific Quad and its strong ties with the US and other Western powers.

More broadly, Brics’ priorities are India’s priorities.

The joint statement issued after the recent summit trumpets the same principles and goals that Delhi articulates in its own public messages and policy documents: engagement with the Global South (a critical target for Delhi), promotion of multilateralism and multipolarity, support for UN reform (Delhi very much wants much a permanent seat on the UN Security Council) and criticizes the Western sanctions regime (affecting Delhi’s trade with Russia and infrastructure projects with Iran).

And yet, all this may seem to pose a problem for India.

With Brics gaining momentum, bringing in new members and attracting global discontent, the group appears to be beginning to implement its long-standing vision – strongly articulated by Beijing and Moscow – to serve as an opposition to the West.

Additionally, the new Brics members include Iran and possibly further afield, Belarus and Cuba – hinting at the future possibility of a decidedly anti-Western tilt.

While India aims to balance its ties with the Western and non-Western world, it would not want to be part of any arrangement perceived to be overtly anti-Western.

However, in reality, such fears are unfounded.

Brics is not an anti-Western entity. Apart from Iran, all the new members have close ties to the West. Furthermore, many countries rumored as possible future members do not exactly constitute an anti-Western bloc; these include Turkey, a NATO member, and Vietnam, a key US trading partner.

And even if Brics were to gain more anti-Western members, the grouping would likely struggle to implement the kinds of initiatives that could pose a real threat to the West.

The joint statement issued after the recent summit identified a number of plans, including an international payments system that would counter the US dollar and avoid Western sanctions.

But here, a long-standing criticism of Brics – that it cannot get meaningful things done – continues to play out. First, Brics projects to reduce dependence on the US dollar are probably not viable, as the economies of many member states cannot afford to withdraw from it.

In addition, the original Brics states often struggled to see eye to eye, and cohesion and consensus will be even more difficult to achieve with an enlarged membership.

India may get along well with most Brics members, but many new members do not get along well with each other.

Iran has problems with both Egypt and the UAE, and relations between Egypt and Ethiopia are strained.

One would hope that the recent easing of tensions between China and India could bode well for the Brics.

But let’s be clear: despite their recent border accord, India’s ties with China remain very strained.

An ongoing broader border dispute, intensifying bilateral competition in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, and China’s close alliance with Pakistan rule out any détente any time soon.

Brics today offers the best of all worlds for Delhi. It allows India to work with some of its closest friends in an expanding organization that embraces principles close to India’s heart, from multilateralism to embracing the Global South.

It gives India an opportunity to strike more balance in its relations with Western and non-Western states at a time when Delhi’s relations with the US and its Western allies (with the notable exception of Canada) have reached new heights.

At the same time, Brics’ ongoing struggles to achieve greater internal cohesion and to do more on the ground ensure that the group is unlikely to pose a major threat to the West, let alone become an anti- The West – none of them. which India would like.

The most likely outcome to emerge from the recent summit, as suggested by the joint statement, is a commitment by Brics to collaborate on a range of non-controversial, seamless initiatives focused on climate change, higher education, public health and science and technology, among others.

Such cooperation would involve member states working with each other, and not against the West – an ideal arrangement for India.

These safe-space collaborations would also demonstrate that an ascendant Bric need not make the West uncomfortable. And that would provide some useful reassurance after the group’s well-attended summit in Russia likely drew nervous attention in Western capitals.

Michael Kugelman is director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington

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