Participating in a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar offered insights into India’s relationship with the West, distinguishing it from other BRICS members. Jaishankar emphasized that while India is non-Western, it maintains strong ties with Western countries, which are steadily improving. He highlighted India’s stance as being non-Western rather than anti-Western, contrasting it with the perceived anti-Western stance of some BRICS members dominated by Beijing and Moscow.
Jaishankar stated that India does not align with Russia and China in mobilizing BRICS against the West, emphasizing that India sees value in BRICS as a non-Western forum that has contributed significantly to reshaping global governance in the 21st century. This stance, while raising concerns in the West about India’s close ties with Russia and BRICS, was not contested by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who endorsed Jaishankar’s call for flexibility in international relations and highlighted the importance of “variable geometry” in the current global context.
