World seeks stable, predictable environment for trade & investment, says EAM at BRICS summit

New Delhi: With New Delhi and Washington, DC, trying to bring the ties back from the brink, India on Monday stressed a “stable and predictable environment for trade and investment”, but, unlike some of its BRICS partners, cautiously refrained from going full steam ahead in criticising United States President Donald Trump’s tariff wars.

“The world as a collective is seeking a stable and predictable environment for trade and investment. At the same time, it is imperative that economic practices are fair, transparent and to everyone’s benefit,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said as he represented Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an extraordinary virtual meeting of the BRICS leaders convened by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

“The world requires constructive and cooperative approaches to promote trade that is sustainable. Increasing barriers and complicating transactions will not help. Neither would the linking of trade measures to non-trade matters.”

Lula convened the meeting of the BRICS leaders to discuss Trump’s tariff wars that disrupted global commerce. Modi skipped the meeting and had Jaishankar standing in for him, although President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia were among the leaders who personally attended the meeting.

Trump recently imposed a 50 per cent tariff on all exports from India to the US, including 25 per cent to punish India for continuing to buy energy from Russia, defying the sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union on the former Soviet Union nation for its war in Ukraine.

With Trump often accusing the BRICS of pursuing an anti-US agenda and even threatening the bloc’s members with an additional 10 per cent tariff, New Delhi sought to maintain a strategic balance by lowering the level of representation in the virtual meeting convened by Lula.

Besides, just days after the bonhomie between Modi, Xi, and Putin had been put on public display on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Tianjin in northern China, an exchange of positive vibes between New Delhi and Washington, DC, raised hope for a thaw.

Trump’s aides, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, often frowned upon India’s continued presence in a bloc like BRICS, perceived as an emerging alternative to the G7.

“When there are multiple disruptions, our objective should be to proof it against such shocks. That means creating more resilient, reliable, redundant and shorter supply chains,” Jaishankar said at the meeting of the BRICS leaders on Monday.

“Not just that, it is also essential that we democratize manufacturing and production and encourage their growth in different geographies. Progress in that regard will contribute to regional self-sufficiency and relieve anxieties at times of uncertainty.”

“We can only cope with external challenges more effectively when we manage our own affairs well in the first place,” Xi said at the BRICS virtual meeting on Monday. “Tariff blackmail is being normalised as an instrument for market conquest and to interfere in domestic affairs," said Lula.

Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on several items exported by Brazil to the US. He moved against Brazil in the wake of what he termed a ‘witch hunt’ against his ally, former far-right president of the South American nation, Jair Bolsonaro, who was on trial for allegedly plotting a coup to take power back from Lula.

Lula defeated Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections. Jaishankar, however, on Monday, referred to the issue of trade deficit within the BRICS too.

“The BRICS itself can set an example by reviewing trade flows among its member states. Where India is concerned, some of our biggest deficits are with BRICS partners, and we have been pressing for expeditious solutions,” said the external affairs minister. “We hope that this realisation will be part of the takeaways from today’s meeting.”