Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Support our Journalism

9th Anniversary: Free Tote & Mug

BRICS can widen India’s Arctic role. Though it can’t become another Arctic Council

The BRICS Working Group on Ocean and Polar Science and Technology meeting in Goa illustrated the niche the bloc has carved out: a mechanism for scientific and technological cooperation, not a new layer of Arctic governance.

In mid-August, India hosted the eighth meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Ocean and Polar Science and Technology in Goa with eight of the bloc’s 10 members. They discussed joint ocean and polar research, climate monitoring, biodiversity, data-sharing and the training of young researchers. For a country steadily expanding its footprint in polar science, India chairing this meeting during its BRICS presidency was a notable moment.

It also raises a broader question: should deeper polar cooperation within BRICS gradually evolve into a role in Arctic governance? Or is the bloc’s real strength in complementing the region’s existing institutions rather than competing with them? For India, the second path looks far more promising. It allows New Delhi to keep expanding its Arctic research and practical projects through BRICS while continuing to engage with the established system of Arctic cooperation — combining several complementary formats rather than betting everything on one.

The Arctic Council remains the key platform for regional governance, built around the eight Arctic states, with indigenous organisations holding a distinct role. India has been an observer there since 2013, a status that keeps........

© ThePrint