BRICS is not anti-West, it’s just challenging the West’s monopoly on power

India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit on 12 and 13 September. For many years, the West...America and Europe...have seen the grouping as a threat.

So, is it really a threat?

Well, BRICS is not trying to conquer the world. However, it is definitely challenging the idea that the West owns the world.

For decades, the global order was largely written, financed and enforced by Western powers. Institutions like the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund remained heavily tilted toward the realities of 1945, World War II, and not the realities of 2026.

BRICS is an attempt to tell the world that times have changed, and inclusivity is the need of the hour.

What is in it for India?

India has never been anti-West, it has been non-West. And the difference lies in the name.

India's objective is strategic autonomy...the freedom to work with America, Russia, Europe, Japan, the Gulf, Africa and China simultaneously, without compromising on any relationship. And that is precisely why BRICS matters.

BRICS gives India the leverage to demand reform of institutions that no longer adequately represent the developing world....for instance, the UNSC. It gives the global south strong bargaining power. It can help create alternatives in finance, trade and technology. and it sends a very simple message: the age of one power writing the rules for everyone else is ending.

Remember, BRICS is not NATO. It's not a military alliance. So, it's not a politically aligned group, but has diverse membership, reflecting wide-ranging political systems, economic agendas, and strategic priorities. A genuinely multipolar world that will serve everyone.

So, not anti-American. Not pro-Chinese. not anti-Western. BRICS makes the international order truly international.

So when you watch the BRICS Summit unfold in New Delhi this weekend, remember that the only agenda that India has in BRICS is to be pro-India.