Alex Alfirraz Scheers
At the recent BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, India and China held formal talks for the first time in five years. While Beijing and New Delhi are major trading partners, that partnership is characterized by a lopsidedness that weighs in China’s favor. In recent years, their relationship has also been tense. Unsettled border disputes led to skirmishes in 2020, 2021, and 2022, with the former arguably the worst confrontation between the regional powers in decades.
The countries are natural rivals, with the two largest populations in the world – together comprising approximately 36 percent of the global population — and with starkly contrasting political systems and social cultures. China has been a one-party state since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, while India is the world’s biggest democracy, and has been since its independence in 1947. With China’s meteoric rise, India has been orienting its strategic position with the aim of elevating its own global standing.
Indeed, China’s ascendancy comes about as India is concurrently planning its own. Hence, it would be unwise to be wholly convinced by the BRICS Summit’s optics. These fractious neighbors are also nuclear powers and are actively seeking to expand and modernize their nuclear forces. China’s nuclear journey plays a considerable role in India’s own strategic outlook. While Pakistan has always been India’s greatest security concern, China’s threat has imbued military and political strategists in New Delhi with a renewed focus. To compound New Delhi’s concerns, Islamabad and Beijing have a longstanding strategic partnership. The perceived threat from China has initiated developments approximating a regional security dilemma. These realities should not be ignored, regardless of the BRICS Summit.
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