India's Quest for Status and Neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine War: BRICS, a Case Study

Abstract

Employing BRICS as a case study, this paper argues that India's neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war is not influenced by its quest for status via BRICS because a souring of the India-Russia bilateral relationship will not affect India's quest for status through the BRICS. First, India and Russia have joined and co-developed BRICS to achieve their national and foreign policy goals such as great power status, challenging US hegemony and achieving a multipolar world order, reform of the liberal international order and Bretton Woods institutions and other objectives. Both countries have much to lose by allowing their problematic bilateral relationship to adversely impact the BRICS. Second, the BRICS is structured in such a way that its operating procedures/principles including consensus-based decision making and intentionally omitting controversial issues implies that bilateral problems between member states are not tabled and they do not make the group dysfunctional.