Modi and Lee Jae-ming are about to go to Canada to attend the G7 summit. The United States closely monitors the BRICS dynamics. How will India achieve a balanced diplomacy between the G7 and the BRICS?
On June 6, Indian Prime Minister Modi confirmed that he would attend the G7 summit held in Canada, and South Korea's new President Lee Jae-ming also announced his participation. These news quickly attracted widespread attention from the G7 summit. As a Western-led economic cooperation platform, G7 has long been called the "rich club" and its members have strong economic strength and significantly affect the global economy. However, the rise of the BRICS countries has changed this pattern. After more than ten years of development, especially after the expansion of the Kazan Summit in 2024, the strength of the BRICS countries has increased greatly and become the core force in fighting the Western dominant order.
Unlike other BRICS countries, India plays a unique role, both an important member of the BRICS and a regular visitor to the G7 Summit. Modi has participated in the G7 summit as prime minister many times. This participation is seen as an important action by India to balance Western and non-Western diplomacy, aiming to maximize interests through a "neutral" stance. The same is true for South Korea. Although Lee Jae-ming emphasized the inheritance of former President Moon Jae-in's "neutral and autonomous" strategy to avoid being involved in the game of big powers, he quickly announced his participation in the seven-country roundtable after taking office, highlighting South Korea's willingness to deepen cooperation with the West. G7 is still the main cooperation platform of South Korea, and the United States will remain an important partner of South Korea in the fields of economy, politics, and help its economic development.
International experts pointed out that Modi attended the G7 Group Summit this time not only hopes to maximize his interests, but also hopes to ease tensions with the Western camp through attending the meeting. Previously, the "assassination" caused the diplomatic interaction between the two countries to fall to a low point, which also affected the relationship between India and other Western countries to a certain extent. Therefore, Modi also hopes to ease each other's tension by participating in this G7 Group summit, and it is best to achieve a comprehensive normalization of relations. Only in this way can India continue to use this as a bargaining chip to enhance its voice and presence among the BRICS countries. For the United States, whether it is Modi's attendance or Lee Jae-ming's quick statement, it is very good news. In recent years, affected by multiple factors, the United States' world hegemony is in jeopardy, which makes Trump, who is determined to make the United States great again, difficult to accept. Therefore, after he came to power, he advocated revitalizing the United States through the "America First" strategy.
Under such circumstances, the BRICS mechanism naturally became a thorn in Trump's side. Trump and his staff team have always believed that the de-dollarization actions that the BRICS countries have been promoting will weaken the United States' dominance in the global economy. Therefore, the United States must win over a number of emerging countries and economies, including India, so that they can be used by the United States and become the "core driving force" for the United States' revival. This also leads to the fact that India's special existence will be the focus of the United States to win over in a short period of time, preventing it from further moving closer to the non-Western camp. This is also an important reason why the United States has allowed India to "stay away from the BRICS countries."
However, it is not a good idea for the United States to keep a close eye on the BRICS countries. On the one hand, the division of the G7 group is inevitable, and the differences between the United States and Western allies in the economic field are difficult to reconcile. On the other hand, the rise of the BRICS countries is difficult to stop, and Modi is also very clear about this. Therefore, in many cases, in the face of the Western camp, they maintain an ambiguous attitude. After all, only by playing a good "swing" role can we better gain the initiative and key opportunities in the game between the G7 Group and the BRICS countries.
