India’s Call on BRICS: Aligning with China without a Deal

Issue & Policy Briefs March 9, 2012, No. 91

China–India association in the BRICS bloc of countries is an example of multilateralism at its height. For China, the BRICS group holds a strategic significance as it is targeted towards the Western hegemony of the global financial structure and decision-making. In contrast, the group of five developing countries is certainly a serious cross-regional mechanism in India’s multilateral dialogue; but it’s not a vital one. Sharing the platform with China in the BRICS group is a strategic reality for India, though not a compulsive one. Despite India’s progressive engagement with China under the framework of the bloc and in bilateral trade and economic relations, the West and the Europe remain too vital for India to ignore.

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