India participates in a wide range of regional and global political groupings. This article covers its role in the most significant ones.
✊ Must Know
India: A Founding Member of NAM
- FoundingIndia is a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, founded in Belgrade in September 1961.
- The foundersFive leaders founded NAM: Nehru, Yugoslavia’s Tito, Egypt’s Nasser, Indonesia’s Sukarno, and Ghana’s Nkrumah, the last often the overlooked fifth founder.
- How relevance has changedNAM’s original purpose, avoiding alignment with either Cold War bloc, disappeared once the Cold War ended.
- Why it mattersNAM now functions mainly as a 120-member Global South consultative bloc, with recent summits drawing far less great-power attention than its Cold War-era meetings.
BRICS: A Grouping of Major Emerging Economies, and Act East: India’s ASEAN Outreach, and India’s Push for a Permanent UNSC Seat, via the G4
- FoundingIndia is a member of BRICS, a grouping of major emerging economies whose first summit was held in Russia in 2009.
- The founding fiveBrazil, Russia, India, and China held that first summit; South Africa joined in 2010, completing the founding five.
- A real 2024 expansionEgypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE joined as full members in 2024, with Indonesia following in 2025.
- Why it mattersThis expansion roughly doubled BRICS’ membership, making it a much larger bloc representing a bigger share of the global population and economy.
- The upgradeIndia engages closely with ASEAN through its “Act East” policy, announced in November 2014 as an upgrade of the earlier “Look East” policy.
- The real frameworkAct East runs on four pillars: Culture, Commerce, Connectivity, and Capacity Building, known as the 4Cs.
- What it actually coversIts real objectives are economic cooperation with the wider Asia-Pacific, deeper India-ASEAN engagement, and better connectivity for India’s Northeast as a gateway region.
- A common trap“Promoting peace and amity with neighbouring countries” sounds like an Act East goal but is not. That line actually belongs to India’s separate Neighbourhood First policy.
- The pushIndia has actively sought permanent membership of the UN Security Council, as part of a broader campaign for UN reform.
- The G4India pushes this jointly through the G4, a coalition with Brazil, Germany, and Japan formed in 2005 specifically to campaign for permanent seats together.
- The actual proposalThe G4 wants the Council expanded from 15 to around 25-26 seats, adding six new permanent members across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
- Why it’s stalledG4 foreign ministers met again in February 2026 to reiterate urgency, but the formal reform negotiations have produced no substantive outcome in over 16 years.
💡 Good to Know
Smaller, Targeted Groupings: IBSA and BIMSTEC
- MechanismIndia also joins smaller, more targeted groupings alongside the large ones, each built around a narrower shared interest.
- IBSAIBSA links India, Brazil, and South Africa as three major democracies, founded in Brasilia in 2003. No leaders’ summit has met in recent years, but ministerial coordination and its development-aid fund still continue.
- BIMSTECBIMSTEC connects South and Southeast Asian neighbours around the Bay of Bengal, notably excluding Pakistan entirely.
- Why it mattersBoth groupings let India work with a small, focused set of partners, rather than waiting on consensus from a much larger body.
G20: A Seat Among the Largest Economies, and the UNSC Argument
- A seat at the tableIndia’s G20 membership puts it directly at the table for decisions among the world’s largest economies.
- A real 2023 resultIndia held the G20 presidency in 2023, hosting the first-ever G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi. There, the African Union was admitted as a permanent G20 member.
- Why that matteredThe African Union became only the second regional bloc after the European Union to hold permanent G20 membership, a change India championed directly.
- A related argumentThe UN Security Council’s permanent membership has stayed fixed since 1945, and India argues this structure no longer reflects today’s global power balance.
🎯 Exam Point of View
CDS (I) 2023: Who Was NOT in NAM’s Founding Leadership
- QuestionCDS asked which leader was NOT part of NAM’s core leadership in its formative phase.
- AnswerThe answer is Fidel Castro, who was not part of that founding leadership group.
- WhyThis matches this article’s own Must Know fact: NAM was a founding-member movement with its own core leaders, and Castro’s Cuba joined the movement but was not among its original architects.
- LinkSource: CDS (I) 2023, General Knowledge, Q111.
NDA (I) 2017: The Fake Act East Objective
- QuestionNDA asked which option was NOT one of the objectives of the Act East Policy.
- AnswerThe answer is “to promote peace and amity with the neighbouring countries of Asia.”
- WhyThat line sounds right but is not an actual stated Act East objective. It belongs to India’s separate Neighbourhood First policy. The government’s own text instead names economic cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region, India-ASEAN cooperation in India’s domestic agenda, and better connectivity to the North East as the real objectives.
- LinkSource: NDA & NA (I) 2017, General Ability Test (see Q148).
✅ Test Yourself
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🌟 Great to Know
From Non-Alignment to Targeted Coalitions
- The patternNAM’s declining relevance alongside BRICS’ and G20’s rising importance reflects a broader shift in India’s foreign policy identity.
- The resultIndia has moved from a Cold War identity built on avoiding alignment, toward targeted, interest-based coalitions built around shared economic or regional goals.
- Why smaller groupings matter tooGroupings like IBSA and BIMSTEC serve a different function than large bodies like the UN or G20. They let India build deeper cooperation with just a handful of specific partners.
- Why it mattersThis is easier than negotiating consensus among a much larger, more diverse membership, so India keeps both large and small groupings active at once.
The Real Obstacle to UNSC Reform
- The structural obstacleIndia’s UNSC reform push faces an obstacle beyond simple persuasion, since any change to permanent membership needs approval from the existing permanent members.
- Why it mattersSome of those existing members have their own reasons to prefer the current structure, making reform a matter of institutional self-interest, not just fairness.
- A concrete sign of the stallThe G4’s formal reform negotiations have produced no substantive outcome in over 16 years, despite repeated joint statements.
- Where to go deeperFor more detail on BRICS, G20, QUAD, and SCO specifically, see IntlRel0023 — Regional and Global Groupings Involving India.
📰 Current Affairs
India Chairs BRICS in 2026
- WhatIndia is chairing BRICS in 2026 and hosting the summit in New Delhi on 9-10 September.
- WhoPM Modi is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. (Source: The Tribune)
BRICS 2026 Chairmanship Logo and Theme
- WhatIndia unveiled its BRICS 2026 chairmanship logo and theme on 13 January 2026.
- MechanismThe approach stays people-centric, continuing the line set at the 2025 Brazil summit. Its agenda covers global governance reform and greater use of local currencies in trade. (Source: Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS)(Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS, 13 Jan 2026)
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