India’s hosting of a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers today showcases the country’s tricky position as a result of the Middle East war and US diplomacy with China.
New Delhi acknowledged it would be “difficult … to forge a consensus” at the gathering, which has expanded recently to include Iran and the UAE, whose relations have sharply worsened as a result of the war with Tehran firing huge numbers of missiles and drones on the emirates.
At the same time, positive rhetoric from a meeting of the American and Chinese leaders in Beijing threatens to undermine India’s positioning as a counterweight to a rising China: “India will need to make its strategic value harder to overlook,” one scholar told CNBC.