Dr. Shoaib Khan about India’s role in the Global South and India-Russia cooperation

Respondent: Dr. Shoaib Khan. Visiting Faculty, Centre for Central Eurasian Studies, University of Mumbai; Founder and President, ALFAAZ Education and Cultural Society, Mumbai.

Interviewer: Dr. Liudmila A. Pechishcheva. Associate professor at RSUH.

The Global South can be regarded as one of the most discussed issues on today’s agenda. Not having formed a special bloc the South Globe states play an essential part on the world and regional arena. One of the main pillars in the South Globe is India that is fast economically and politically developing now. India, a leading proponent of the Global South, initiated and held in November 2023 the Second Edition of Voice of Global South Summit, that brought together more than 100 countries to share vital challenges and priorities on a common platform.

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Liudmila A. Pechishcheva: Dear Dr. Shoaib Khan! I appreciate your interest in my questions on one of the most up-to-date issues related to India-Russia strategic cooperation as well as India’s role in the Global South. I would like to thank you for your time. What are the positive aspects in cultural, educational, and scientific cooperation between Russia and India?

Dr. Khan: Russia has been a longstanding and time-tested partner for India. Development of India-Russia relations has been a key pillar of India's foreign policy. Since the signing of the “Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership” in October 2000 (during the visit of President Putin), India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas, including political, security, defence, trade and economy, science & technology, culture, and people-to-people ties. During the visit of the Russian President to India in December 2010, the Strategic Partnership was elevated to the level of “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.”

The bilateral relationship has remained strong and stable over more than 75 years. The India-Russia partnership has been among the steadiest of the major relationships in the world in contemporary era with a shared commitment to a multipolar world and continues to expand beyond the traditional areas of military, nuclear and space cooperation. In the past two years, the bilateral trade has expanded significantly, far exceeding the target of $30bn set earlier for 2025. The close relationship between India and Russia is marked by goodwill and shared interest. In addition to cooperation in trade and investment, wide-ranging cooperation in areas such as defense, atomic energy space, culture, etc. form the basis of our relationship.

Indo-Russian relations took root shortly before India’s Independence but began to blossom only in the 1960s and 1970s. Today most analysts agree that the relationship has developed to a degree that it can be characterised as “time tested”. Over the past several decades, and particularly at the time of the Soviet Union, Indo-Russian relations had been marked by a high degree of political and strategic trust. As the relationship evolved, it gained strength based on five pillars: a) similar political and strategic perceptions of the world; b) intensive military-technical cooperation; c) strong economic bonds; d) deep ties in science and technology; and e) people-to-people and cultural links.

It is worth noting that in the long period of recorded interaction between India and Russia, there has been no friction between the people of our two countries. Instead, there was curiosity about each other’s civilization and culture, and the outcomes of this mutual curiosity are today immortalized in the works of prominent Russian and Indian writers and artists. India-Russia Annual Summits have been held regularly every year so far.

The outcome for each of the four pillars over the past twenty years has been uneven. This has been due to both obstacles within the domestic jurisdiction of India and Russia, as well as a steadily deteriorating international environment that has put unexpected pressures on the development of normal relations between the two partners. Taking cognizance of this ground reality, the political leaders of the two countries took the decision in early 2018 to introduce a flexible mechanism into the India-Russia strategic partnership. This is today known as the “informal Summit mechanism”. The mechanism allows the leaders of the two countries to meet and interact informally to discuss and decide on the main issues facing the partnership, including those issues that are on the agenda of the more structured Annual Summit mechanism.

There are discussions on ways to increase exports from India as well by developing new models of cooperation. Several connectivity initiatives are also increasingly central to the bilateral cooperation, especially the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Chennai-Vladivostok Eastern Maritime Corridor. Moreover, both countries remain committed to strengthen cooperation in the development of the Russian Far East region and working together in research, logistics and training in the Arctic region. There is a synergy between Russia’s pivot to the East, its resource and technology and India’s own flagship initiatives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India.

Liudmila A. Pechishcheva: is BRICS a good international platform for today’s Russia-India cooperation? Why?

Dr. Khan: BRICS aims to promote a multipolar world order, where power is distributed more evenly among nations rather than dominated by a single or a few global powers. India and Russia are both strong advocates for this system, viewing BRICS as a vehicle to reduce the unipolar dominance of the West, particularly the US and its allies. Through BRICS, India and Russia collaborate on global governance reforms, seeking greater representation for developing countries in institutions like the UN, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank.

Russia, which faces sanctions and diplomatic isolation from the West due to its geopolitical stances, including the ongoing war against Ukraine, BRICS offers an alternative platform to engage with large economies like India. For India, BRICS provides a counterbalance to align with both Western and Eastern powers, helping maintain its strategic autonomy. Both countries use BRICS to advocate for a more equitable global financial and security order, which is crucial given their desire to ensure sovereignty and resist hegemonic pressures.

India and Russia see BRICS as a mechanism to enhance economic cooperation, trade, and investment. The BRICS framework encourages collaboration in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, technology, and agriculture. For Russia, BRICS provides access to growing markets like India, while India benefits from Russia's rich resources, especially in energy.

India’s engagement in BRICS reflects its dual focus on expanding influence in both Western-led and Global South platforms. The 2024 Kazan Summit, where the BRICS grouping expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, provided India with an opportunity to balance its growing ties with the United States while actively participating in BRICS—a grouping where Russia and China have significant influence. As BRICS embraces new members, India supports expansion cautiously, favoring countries that align with its strategic and economic priorities, such as the UAE.

Since 2006, the main locus of Russo-Indian cooperation toward reforming global order has been the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and (since 2011) South Africa. The BRICS group of nations has been most active in the area of global economic governance, but it boasts a sprawling set of working groups and a stated aim of entirely reforming the global order. For Russia, India and China are the most important partners in the group, and their importance grows directly out of Primakov’s strategic triangle.

Cooperation in the BRICS has always been circumscribed by profound differences among its members. These include not only different positions in discrete international institutions that dictate different approaches but also variance in larger strategic goals. For Russia, BRICS has always been about politics, and has in many ways been a prime tool in Russian efforts—both rhetorical and otherwise—to balance against U.S. hegemony in the global system. India, while certainly in possession of a strong strain of anti-Westernism in its own foreign policy, has nevertheless viewed BRICS primarily in terms of geoeconomics and India’s ongoing efforts to increase its voice in prime organs of global governance. Countering U.S. supremacy as such is, for India, a useful side benefit of BRICS rather than the group’s main purpose.

Liudmila A. Pechishcheva: what do you think about the role of the Global South as well as India’s role in the Global South?

Dr. Khan: The Global South refers to countries often characterized as developing, less developed, or underdeveloped, primarily located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These nations typically experience higher levels of poverty, income inequality, and challenging living conditions compared to the wealthier nations of the Global North. The “Global North” is richer nations that are located mostly in North America and Europe, with some additions in Oceania and elsewhere.

The term Global South was first coined in 1969 by political activist Carl Oglesby. The term Global South does not have a strict geographical definition. It signifies a combination of political, geopolitical, and economic similarities among nations. Many countries in the Global South have a history of Imperialism and Colonial Rule, particularly evident in African countries. The growing economic and political power of the Global South has important implications for global geopolitics.

Asian nations are predicted to play a significant role in what experts call the "Asian Century." Additionally, there is talk of a "post-Western world" as the influence of the Global South challenges the historical dominance of the Global North. These shifts signify the increasing assertiveness and influence of the Global South on the world stage. In recent years, the idea that the global political and economic order divides the world into two unequal factions has returned to the global stage. The rising popularity of the Global South term reflects renewed grievances against the global order and the need for those currently disempowered to band together to overhaul it.

The Global South reflects a desire for a new attempt at a more equal global order, an attempt that previously faltered during the 1980s. From 1990 to 2020, a key metric of wealth inequality fell, indicating a reduction in economic inequality between countries. Countries like India, Indonesia, and Brazil that have been traditionally considered part of the Global South have cultivated enough economic and political clout to emerge as regional or global powers, butting heads with one another at times in doing so, subverting the idea of a Global South that is unified and powerless. They have also bypassed traditionally Western-centric multilateral institutions with new groupings like BRICS, and they have found a path toward greater collaboration with the Global North through groups like the G20.

India has been raising the issues of concerns and priorities of the Global South at various international forums and using its diplomatic and political influence to have their problems addressed. At the G20 summit in Delhi, India emerged as one of the leading champions of the Global South. India’s initiative was driven by the twin motivations to deepen solidarity within the camp, and to project its agenda. It also established the relevance of India’s development experience and achievements to the Global South, and New Delhi’s role as an important player and leader of the Global South. This is necessary, given the many contestants for the latter position, from China to Brazil to South Africa.

India's usage of the term “Global South” embodies three elements. First, China is positioned outside the framework, implying India’s standing as the representative of the developing world. Second, as India understands the traditional North-South problem and the context of North-South disparities, its use of the term suggests its intention to add the topic of resolving issues faced by countries located in the Southern Hemisphere to the discussions in multilateral forums led by major countries, such as the G7 and G20. Finally, India maintains a stance that intentionally does not clarify which countries are included in the scope of the Global South and keeps the definition vague. This ambiguity indicates the possibility of including all countries other than developed countries and China, and as a result, India seems to have succeeded in bringing into view the Global South, a group of emerging and developing countries, as a single political actor.

India’s foray into the development stage by hosting the third edition of Voice of the Global South Summit also came at a significant point in history. This can also be translated as an attempt to nurture South-South Cooperation which has lost steam in recent times. South-South Cooperation has come under the axe for several reasons, one of them being overstretching the decolonisation narrative which may have stalled its real-time impact in the long run. Understandably, the binding force between the countries of the Global South is their desire to realise similar goals to counter common challenges; however, being placed at different tangents of the development trajectory, their priorities may not always converge. Harmonising these differing goals and establishing collective action is a tough task.

The prominent rise of the Global South, particularly after India’s G20 Presidency, has set the ball rolling, in terms of achieving just transition, tackling growing hunger and food insecurity, securing critical supply chains, building robust partnerships, and enhancing digital connectivity. In this sense, India’s position is extremely pivotal. By giving a voice to the developing countries, India adapted a de-securitised and development-focused foreign policy stance.

Интервью с индийским экспертом доктором Шоаибом Ханом (Dr. Shoaib Khan) подготовлено в рамках гранта «Проектные научные коллективы РГГУ» в 2024 г. для реализации научно-исследовательского проекта «Глобальный Юг во внешнеполитической стратегии России: новые подходы и механизмы многостороннего сотрудничества». Интервьюер: Печищева Л.А., доцент РГГУ.