Opinion | From Periphery To Fulcrum: India's BRICS Journey Under PM Modi

The most consequential strategic shift is that India is increasingly able to speak for the Global South without speaking against the West

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India’s successful conclusion of the New Delhi Declaration at the 18th BRICS Summit is far more than a diplomatic formality. In an expanded BRICS – larger, more diverse and inevitably more complex – getting all members to agree on a substantive joint declaration is itself a significant achievement. That it was negotiated, finalised and released with relative seamlessness is a testament to India’s ability to bring countries with divergent interests to the table and take everyone along.

There is a striking continuity with September 2023, when India achieved the seemingly improbable at the G20 in New Delhi: a consensus declaration despite deep divisions over the Russia-Ukraine war. Three years later, India has demonstrated the same diplomatic muscle at BRICS, on an even more complex canvas.

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The New Delhi Declaration is, therefore, not merely a communiqué; it is a diplomatic scorecard.

The first and most consequential takeaway for India is the declaration’s unequivocal condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. For New Delhi, this goes well beyond the wording of a communiqué. The declaration is a powerful endorsement of Prime Minister Modi’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism – in all its forms and manifestations – which he has consistently championed at global forums.

India has spent years arguing that there can be no distinction between “good" and “bad" terrorism, and that terror cannot be justified by political grievances or given geopolitical cover. For this principle to find collective expression in an expanded BRICS is a significant diplomatic gain.

The second major takeaway is India’s growing legitimacy in the debate on reforming global governance. The declaration backs the........

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