Johannesburg: India’s ability to navigate relationships with multiple, often competing actors, could become a key diplomatic strength, serving as a link between BRICS and the US, which under President Donald Trump viewed the bloc as anti-American and as a potential threat to Washington, a report has highlighted.
South African newspaper ‘The Citizen’ reflected how India’s relationship with Israel would impact the unity of the BRICS countries.
While the conflict in Iran has exposed limits to the military dominance of the US-Israel alliance, it has also laid bare the strain that major geopolitical crisis place on the institutions of a new multipolar order.
“Donald Trump’s gung-ho policy of world domination met its ‘Moses’ when the US President and Israel attacked Iran. The Islamic Republic did not roll over like Venezuela and succumb to US might but retaliated ferociously, even as its supreme leader was killed. Whichever way the war ends, Iran will be a lesson America and Israel will not forget easily. But the ramifications of the conflict extend beyond the battlefield,” the report detailed.
“It has exposed divisions within major international groupings, from the United Nations to NATO and even BRICS, where member states increasingly find their national interests pulling them in different directions,” it added.
According to the report, the concern that New Delhi’s policy on Israel risks undermining the cohesion of the BRICS overlooks a central feature of Indian foreign policy – the country has never aligned itself with rigid geopolitical camps.
India’s diplomacy, it said, has long been guided by strategic autonomy, balancing engagements across competing blocs while protecting its national interests.
“This approach is especially evident in the Middle East, where India maintains strong partnerships with Israel in defence technology, agriculture and innovation, while sustaining deep economic and energy ties with the Arab world and Iran,” the report stated.
“This balancing act is not an inconsistency but a deliberate strategy. For India, its growing partnership with Israel reflects practical considerations,” it added.
Emphasising India’s constructive role as a pragmatic global actor, the report said, “Far from undermining BRICS unity, India’s stance underscores the evolving nature of multipolar diplomacy, as evidenced by India’s friendly relations with Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy.”
(IANS)
