China sees the BRICS group as a vehicle for
challenging American power. India wants to keep the group broad enough to avoid
choosing sides.
·
The
BRICS leaders are meeting amid wars,
high energy prices, U.S. tariffs under President Trump and concerns over
artificial intelligence, forcing emerging economies to reassess
their relationships with Washington and Beijing.
·
China has
pushed for BRICS expansion as a means of weakening
U.S. influence and creating a larger counterweight to the West.
·
India has
taken a more cautious approach to expansion and sees BRICS primarily as a bridge between the West and the
developing world.
·
This
difference reflects the broader strategic rivalry between Xi and Modi.
·
Xi's
visit to India would be his first
in seven years, signalling an improvement in relations after
the sharp deterioration following the 2020
border clash.
·
The
2020 tensions led to:
o Suspension of direct flights
o Expulsion of journalists
o India’s ban on Chinese apps including
TikTok
o Restrictions on Chinese investment
o Increased Chinese border infrastructure
·
Relations
began improving in 2024,
following a meeting between Xi and Modi at the BRICS summit in Russia.
·
Both
countries have subsequently found some common ground over Trump’s tariffs and disruption of global
trade.
·
China
remains concerned that prolonged tensions could push India closer to the United States and the Quad
(U.S., India, Japan and Australia).
·
Analysts
describe the current relationship as management
of competition rather than resolution of rivalry.
·
India,
meanwhile, wants to demonstrate that it can maintain relationships with China and Russia while retaining its
strong ties with Western countries.
·
India
holds the BRICS chair in
2026, giving Modi an important advantage in shaping the
summit's agenda.
·
India
is promoting “Inclusive
Global Growth”, echoing its approach during the 2023 G20 Summit.
·
India
previously portrayed itself as a voice for developing countries and highlighted
its role in bringing the African
Union into the G20 and securing consensus on a declaration that
avoided taking sides between Russia and Ukraine.
·
The
article argues that India's ambitions for global leadership have faced
setbacks.
·
Modi's
vision of India as “vishwaguru” (teacher to the world) did not
translate into the expected domestic political success.
·
India
continues to lag China substantially in economic
and technological scale, despite remaining the fastest-growing
major economy.
·
India's
industrial subsidies have so far struggled to attract crucial parts of:
o Battery manufacturing
o Solar-module production
o Broader green-transition supply chains
·
The Iran war and resulting energy-price
increases have placed additional pressure on India's heavy
industry.
·
The
global AI investment boom also presents a challenge because India lacks major
homegrown AI champions, while its stock market has remained stagnant.
·
China
has major advantages in claiming leadership of the developing world:
o Second-largest economy globally
o Greater technological and military
capabilities
o GDP per capita more than five times India's
o Permanent member of the UN Security Council
o Significant leverage over advanced
economies through dominance of critical
minerals and rare-earth magnets
·
China
also demonstrated considerable resilience in its trade confrontation with the
United States.
·
India
questions whether China should still be treated as a developing country,
given its enormous economic and diplomatic influence.
·
China
has been excluded from India's Voice
of Global South summits, which bring together more than 100
developing countries.
·
India
also criticises China's state-driven
export model, arguing that subsidies and cheap
government-backed loans make it difficult for other developing countries to
compete in manufacturing.
·
Commerce
Minister Piyush Goyal
has characterised China's growth as resulting from unfair trade practices
and argued that it has come at the expense of fair competition.
The
BRICS Summit exposes a fundamental difference in the two countries' visions: China seeks to build BRICS into a
stronger geopolitical counterweight to the United States, while India seeks to
use BRICS as a platform for Global South leadership without abandoning its
strategic and economic relationships with the West. Modi
therefore faces the challenge of demonstrating that India can provide an
independent voice for developing countries while competing with China's far
greater economic, technological and diplomatic weight.
[ABS News Service/11.09.2026]
Who
speaks for the developing world: President Xi Jinping of China or Prime Minister
Narendra Modi of India?
That
is the question that will hang over a sprawling convention hall in New Delhi this
weekend as leaders of nearly a dozen emerging-market countries convene for the annual
BRICS summit.
They
are gathering as wars, high energy prices, President Trump’s tariffs and concerns
about artificial intelligence are unsettling the world and forcing countries to
reconsider how closely they want to align with Washington and its preferred partners
or Beijing.
The
BRICS grouping, which is named after five of its earliest members — Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa — was conceived as a counterweight to the West and
to U.S.-dominated forums like the Group of 7.
But
since its inception in 2009, the bloc has been pulled in opposing directions by
the ambitions of the world’s two biggest developing countries.
China
has sought to expand the membership of the group to weaken American power. India
by contrast has been more cautious about the group’s growth, and views it instead
as a bridge between the West and the developing world.
That
divergence in visions is personified by Mr. Xi and Mr. Modi, the most powerful Chinese
and Indian leaders in generations.
A Thaw, With Limits
Mr.
Xi’s attendance at the summit will be his first visit to India in seven years, an
important signal after ties hit a low in 2020.
That
year, Indian and Chinese forces fought a deadly battle in a disputed border region.
Direct flights were suspended and both sides expelled the other’s journalists. India
banned Chinese apps like TikTok and froze Chinese investment, while Beijing accelerated
its fortifications and settlements along its border with India.
The
two leaders initiated a thaw in 2024, at a BRICS summit in Russia. They have since
been driven closer by shared grievances over President Trump, particularly his tariffs
and disruption of global trade.
Mr.
Xi’s effort to repair ties with Mr. Modi is motivated in part by concern that continued
tensions could push India closer to Washington and deepen its involvement in the
Quad, the security group that brings together the United States, India, Japan and
Australia.
“China’s
primary concern with India has always been India’s alignment with the United States,”
said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center
in Washington. “So Beijing certainly would not let the
opportunity slide to regain some traction with Delhi.”
Still,
analysts said, the thaw has not completely diminished the rivalry.
“They’re
managing competition rather than resolving it,” said Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow
at the Brookings Institution in Washington who has written about China’s role in
shaping the U.S.-India relationship.
Mr.
Xi would be happy to ignore India and address the other guests instead, Ms. Madan
added. “He comes to India signaling to most of the world,
‘Look, we are the diplomatic, stable partner that still has a lot of friends, hint,
hint, while the U.S. is pressing you in all these ways.’”
India
also wants to signal that it can get along with a wide range of countries, including
China and Russia.
The
reality is that India has closer relationships with Western countries, Ms. Madan
said. To them, she said, Indian wants to say: “We are keeping our options open,
but we are not ditching you.”
India Sets the Stage
Mr.
Modi has the advantage of being on his home turf. India is the rotating chair of
the BRICS group this year, allowing it to set the agenda.
The
official logo for this year’s summit, now plastered across New Delhi, features a
stylized flower of five colors, each representing one
of the bloc’s original five members. India, in the orange-hued saffron color symbolizing Mr. Modi’s ideological movement, is represented
by a pair of folded palms at the center of the lotus blossom,
another emblem of his Hindu-nationalist party.
As
the host of the event, India’s government has shared few details about the agenda.
But what it does say reflects Mr. Modi’s idea of global leadership, exemplified
when New Delhi hosted the Group of 20 summit in 2023. “Inclusive Global Growth”
remains a major theme, recalling Mr. Modi’s posture then, when India claimed credit
for adding the African Union to the G20, and for crafting a joint statement that
avoided choosing sides between Russia and Ukraine.
India
was positioning itself at the G20 as the leader of the little guys, not to be dominated
by the United States or other rich Western powers.
In
many ways, India’s and Mr. Modi’s positions have weakened since then.
Mr.
Modi’s positioning India as a “vishwaguru” or “teacher
to the world” failed to translate into political success at home. Nine months after
the G20 summit, he lost his parliamentary majority in a major upset, and he was
forced to focus on state elections to secure his power.
India
has also struggled to match China’s economic momentum, even as it remains the world’s
fastest-growing major economy. Its subsidies for high-tech and strategic industries
have mostly failed to bring the most essential parts of battery-making, solar modules
and the rest of the green transition to Indian shores.
The
war in Iran has made other forms of energy more expensive, dragging down India’s
traditional heavy industry. And the global rush to invest in artificial intelligence
— when India has virtually no homegrown champions — has left its stock market stagnant.
China’s Advantages
Beijing’s
leadership of the developing world might seem like a given.
China
boasts the world’s second-largest economy and is growing in technological and military
might. China’s gross domestic product per capita is more than five times greater
than India’s. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and
India is not.
China
fought the United States to a draw in a trade war last year and holds considerable
leverage over advanced economies because of its overwhelming dominance on critical
minerals and rare earth magnets.
“What
exactly is India competing with China on? Those of us who have studied China-India
relations long-term find it hard to see where any real competition exists,” said
Lin Minwang, deputy director of the Center for South Asian
Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“This
isn’t arrogance or self-conceit; it’s simply hard to imagine,” he added.
India
has questioned whether China should get to call itself a developing nation, arguing
that its economic and diplomatic power places it in a different category. It has
excluded China from its summits of the Voice of the Global South, an annual forum
that draws more than 100 developing countries.
Beijing’s
state-driven export model, powered by government subsidies and cheap loans, has
made it difficult for developing countries to compete in manufacturing beyond the
cheapest goods, such as fast fashion and toys.
China’s
“growth was fueled by unfair trade practices,” Piyush
Goyal, India’s commerce minister, said last year. “This growth happened at the cost
of fair play.”