Is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi retracting from his commitment to the SCO declaration issued on September 1 and the BRICS statement of July 6 this year to send some sort of signals to US President Donald Trump about restoring reciprocity in the India-US relations? The question is very relevant as one dissects the Indian PM’s latest decision to skip the virtual BRICS summit held on September 8 and Narendra Modi not attending the United Nations general assembly later this month.
Both events are very important in the present context of Trump’s tariff war and the joint efforts of the affected nations, especially Global South to take common stand against the unilateral imposition of tariffs by the US President. The two major members of BRICS – India and Brazil have been the biggest sufferers of Trump tariffs-at the rate of 50 per cent on their respective exports to the USA. BRICs president for 2025 Brazilian President convened this meeting on September 8 as a follow up of BRICS declaration which was signed by the Indian PM along with all other BRICS members.
At the virtual meet, all head of states excepting India and Ethiopia took part. President Xi Jinping of China and Russian President Vladimir Putin contributed in a big way in suggesting the action plan. India was represented by our foreign minister Dr. S Jaishankar whom no one took note when other head of states were taking part. Dr. Jaishankar, as usual gave an academic lecture on the global challenges rarely touching on the need for joint action against the US decision. Only he expressed concern at the linking of trade measures to non trade barriers. This indirectly hit at the recent actions of the US President but this was drowned in the verbiage of lecture on global trade issues without mentioning the immediate actions to be taken.
Jaishankar said ‘’ The trade patterns and market access are today prominent issues in the global economic discourse. The world requires constructive and cooperative approaches to promote trade that is sustainable. Increasing barriers and complicating transactions will not help.’’. This is a fine address for a normal global trade scenario. But the present situation in 2025 is not normal as a result of the actions of Donald Trump. How to meet that challenge ? There was no concrete suggestion in Dr. Jaishankar’ speech to deal with the immediate issues.
Rather he dealt with the problem within BRICS. He said that BRICS can set an example by reviewing trade flows among its member states. What India is concerned, some of our biggest deficits are with BRICS partners and we have been pressing for expeditious solutions. This issue could have been avoided at this virtual BRICS meet at this time. The meet was called to define immediate strategy to meet the US measures on tariff and linking political issues with trade matters. That should have been main focus of India in the speech which it was not.
Chinese President called the US action as a tariff war, while both Brazilian President and South African President suggested joint action to combat tariff blackmail while President Putin also used strong words without naming Trump. Indian PM’s Narendra Modi’s absence at the virtual meet was taken note of by the other BRICS members, especially Brazil since President Lula will be handing over the BRICS presidency to Narendra Modi next year and India will host the BRICS summit in 2026. Narendra Modi skipping the virtual summit has led to some misgivings among the BRICS members since he took a very active part at the last SCO summit at Tianjin on August 31 and September 1 as also at the BRICS summit at Rio de Janeiro on July 6 and 7.
As regards the UN general assembly, the UN session starts on September 23 and will continue till September 30.Indian PM was given a slot to address on September 26. The same day, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been given slots for addressing the general assembly. In such a critical period, the UN forum is used by the head of states of the member countries to articulate their position on the major issues facing the nation as also the world. The US President Donald Trump will be addressing the UN assembly on September 23. It is quite certain that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Bangladesh Government’s chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus will be attending.
Both Pakistan and Bangladesh will be articulating their respective positions on the major issues. Pakistan is sure to mention about issues with India. Dr. Jaishankar will be representing India but he will be getting a slot at the fag end of the session and nobody will be listening to him. Both Pakistan PM and Bangladesh chief adviser will take full advantage of the absence of Narendra Modi to present their one sided version regarding India.. That will go unchallenged. If PM Modi would have attended, he would have been the first on September 26 to address the assembly. All other head of states of China, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been given slots after him, as per the original assembly schedule.
But what are the real reasons for Narendra Modi’s decision to skip the very crucial UN general assembly session? One reason may be that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may like to avoid meeting the US President who will be present in the session from the first day. Prime Minister is not responding to Trump’s calls if the US media reports are to be believed. It is no way of running diplomacy. You talk to Trump if he wants to talk and tell India’s position in clear terms. There is no need for hide and seek approach. India is a vast country with the largest population in the world as also the fifth largest economy. PM must have the guts to tell Trump what India thinks about its policy. Meetings take place and might end in disagreements, but dialogue must go on with both friends and foes. Perhaps Narendra Modi has forgotten this age old dictum. (IPA Service)