Courtesy: Reuters / Yonhap News Agency
The recent BRICS Summit in New Delhi was declared a success. Its 140-paragraph New Delhi Declaration is the longest yet. With members divided over the Russia-Ukraine and West Asia wars, leaders avoided naming countries or taking positions, focusing on issues affecting the Global South and deepening intra-BRICS cooperation. India steered the grouping towards practical cooperation. The question now is: how will BRICS implement the decisions taken?
Courtesy: Xinhua via AP
Russia-China ties have come a long way from the tensions of the Cold War. Since Russia’s relationship with the West began deteriorating in 2008, China has emerged as a counterweight, with growing economic and cultural ties. In 2026, 83% of Russians viewed China favourably, while bilateral trade grew 22%. This relationship seems rock-solid, and even a thaw with the West is unlikely to alter its course.
Courtesy: Facebook / The Bharat Post
India will host the 18th BRICS Summit from September 12-13, 2026, amid adverse geopolitical circumstances. With Russia at war in Ukraine and Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia caught in the U.S.-Israel conflict, the BRICS grouping faces its biggest test yet. Yet its members remain committed to the “BRICS spirit” and promoting a fair international order. Can India use the summit to advance peace and development?
Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal
The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum highlighted Russia’s push for technological sovereignty. President Vladimir Putin argued that Russia and the Global South must avoid being held hostage to the West. Since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022, sweeping sanctions have accelerated Russia’s efforts to build domestic digital infrastructure, strengthen AI capabilities, and deepen technological cooperation with partners such as India.
Courtesy: AFP
It is important to take an objective review of PM Modi’s visit to Jerusalem and its implications for India’s security. New Delhi will have to demonstrate its strategic autonomy by managing heterogeneous and often contrapuntal relationships and strike a balance in its ties with the U.S. and Israel on the one hand and Iran and the Arab world on the other hand.
Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
Not long ago in the sweep of history, countries that had once been buried behind the Iron Curtain, and even some Soviet republics, were transformed into members of the solidly democratic club. Some of those that weren’t, such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, experienced mass revolts against rigged elections and corrupt misrule amid widespread public yearning to join the West. Free trade was again celebrated as an instrument of peace; Kant’s “democratic peace theory” enjoyed a revival.
Courtesy: Somaliland Presidential Office
Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as an independent state in December 2025 is not merely a diplomatic gesture toward a long-marginalised polity; it is a strategic act with implications for Somalia’s territorial integrity, regional security dynamics, great-power competition, and the evolving politics of recognition in a fractured international order.
Courtesy: All India Radio News
India and Russia have a time-tested relationship, which was evident during President Putin's state visit to New Delhi last week. Its success lay in the warmth the leaders of the two countries share and in its timing: geopolitically, just after discussions of the U.S. and China as the G2, and commercially and strategically, at a time when India’s needs match Russia's capabilities.
Courtesy: Gateway House
U.S. health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. called the World Economic Forum a “billionaires’ boys club” imposing totalitarian controls. Indeed, since 1971, the elite platform shaped geopolitics. But its Western-centricism kept out the concerns of the rest. This gave rise to alternative forums, which look beyond financial agendas to the perspectives shaping the Global South. Here are 45 of biggest, half of which began just two decades ago.
Courtesy: G20.org
The G20’s current cycle is unique, with four Global South nations presiding consecutively: Indonesia, India, Brazil, and now South Africa. Brazil’s 2023-24 presidency exhibited both achievements and struggles, prioritising social inclusion, hunger, energy transition, and governance reform. The handover to South Africa marks a significant milestone in G20 history. Will the momentum be followed by the U.S., the next G20 president but also a G20 sceptic?