RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – JULY 6: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China’s Premier Li Qiang, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pose for the family photo as part of the Brics Summit 2025 at Museu de Arte Moderna on July 6, 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Wagner Meier | Getty Images News | Getty Images
India on Monday urged BRICS members to address their trade imbalances with New Delhi, as the bloc rallied against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs that have unnerved Washington’s friends and foes alike.
Speaking at the virtual summit, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that the country’s “biggest trade deficits are with BRICS partners.” The bloc, which has Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as key members, has been charged by Trump of pursuing “anti-American policies.”
Jaishankar was representing India in the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China last week was seen as signaling warming ties with Beijing at a time when relations with the U.S. have been under strain.
India’s tone at the BRICS meeting contrasted with that of host Brazil, which charged the U.S. of “blackmail.” Brazil, along with India, is among the nations hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs, with levies as steep as 50%.
China, too, took veiled swipes at Washington’s trade policies as President Xi Jinping warned against “Hegemonism, unilateralism, and protectionism.”
“Trade wars and tariff wars waged by some country severely disrupt the world economy and undermine international trade rules,” Xi said, urging the BRICS member nations to stick together in the face of higher tariffs elsewhere.
India sees BRICS as mainly an economic initiative, while China and Russia view it more as a geopolitical grouping, said Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow at Chatham House.
Indeed, New Delhi has pushed for economic initiatives within BRICS, such as the New Development Bank and an emergency liquidity support financial framework.
“In China’s strategic vision, BRICS engagement supplements the Belt and Road Initiative’s geoeconomic focus and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s geopolitical-security role in expanding China’s global influence,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a research report in March.
During a meeting of BRICS trade ministers held in May, India pushed for smoother trade flows and called for stronger cooperation among BRICS members.
Chinese imports to India have been on a steady rise in recent years, taking New Delhi’s trade deficit with Beijing to a record high of $99.21 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2025. China has racked up a $77.7 billion trade surplus with India this year as of August, 16% higher compared to the level a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data released Monday.
“The BRICS itself can set an example by reviewing trade flows among its member states,” Jaishankar said, adding that India had been pressing for “expeditious solutions” to address trade deficits.
Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Moscow also reached a record high of $68.7 billion in fiscal year 2025, with India’s increased oil imports contributing to a $59 billion deficit.
“India has not been able to adequately tap the BRICS markets, despite the fact that imports by all these [BRICS] countries have increased substantially in the last ten years. There is a need to undertake a dedicated initiative to boost exports,” a report by Indian think tank Natstrat said in March this year.
India-U.S. positive signals?
The U.S. has imposed a hefty 50% tariff on India, significantly higher than the 30% levies on Chinese goods, leading to a souring of relations between New Delhi and Washington.
Trade talks between the two have stalled as Washington has sought to curb India’s purchases of Russian oil, while accusing it of protectionist policies in sectors such as agriculture and dairy. New Delhi has said it was being unfairly targeted.
Trump earlier this week said India had offered to cut its tariffs on American imports to zero, while complaining that the proposal had come too late in the negotiation.
Even though experts have blamed Trump for upending more than two decades of improving ties with India, there have been some signs that the two countries could be moving toward addressing sticking points.
Speaking from the Oval Office earlier this week, Trump said that India and the U.S. have a special relationship and “there is nothing to worry,” while praising that Modi was a “great prime minister.”
Modi responding to Trump’s comment in a post on X, said that “deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties.”
“Modi and Trump’s conciliatory statements reflect the fact that despite the bad blood in the bilateral relationship, the structural foundations of the India-US relationship remain robust,” said Bajpaee.
He added that while India sees the U.S. as a key strategic, technology and defense partner, Washington sees India as a counterbalance to the rise of China.
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