You’d be forgiven if you missed the piece entitled “India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats” — it ran in The New York Times, a publication that long ago ceased being a source of reliable news and became a kind of missionary pamphlet for the ideologically possessed. But even broken clocks tell the truth twice a day, and buried in that headline is something that should concern every serious American: India, the world’s largest democracy, nuclear power, and emerging superstate, is drifting into the arms of our enemies. And we are helping it get there.
There was a time when the United States could afford to act unilaterally — to impose tariffs, scuttle treaties, fray alliances, and assume that everyone else would fall in line. That era is over. The world is reorganizing. The BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — have now expanded to include others and collectively represent half of the world’s population. Many of them are actively, even proudly, working to dethrone the United States as the dominant global power. China, with five times our population and a regime unapologetically hostile to our interests, has declared that ambition outright. Russia is willing to blow up half of Europe to make it happen. Iran, Venezuela, and even nominal allies like Turkey are now circling the same anti-American orbit.
And what are we doing? We’re alienating the one country in that group that should, and still could be, on our side.
India has a billion people, a powerful military, a nuclear arsenal, and an economy growing faster than China’s. It shares a long border with China and a long history of tension. It is a functioning democracy, however imperfect. It is culturally independent, politically assertive, and economically essential to the 21st-century balance of power. And yet we treat it as if it’s expendable. Instead of drawing India into the world of free-market democracies, we threaten them with sanctions, punish them with tariffs, and issue ultimatums over who they’re allowed to buy oil from. Is it any wonder they’re hedging their bets with Russia?
The problem here is not that India is being disloyal. The problem is that we are failing to make loyalty attractive. We assume they should align with us by default because we’re the “good guys,” because we have the moral high ground, because we beat the Soviets once and saved Europe twice. But India wasn’t part of that legacy, and they don’t see the world through Cold War nostalgia. They see it through raw national interest. And unless we align their interests with ours, and vice versa, they will continue drifting toward the China–Russia axis. Not out of ideology, but out of realism.
This is why Ukraine spiraled out of control: because the West didn’t present a unified, forceful front from the start, while Russia had powerful friends lined up behind it. It’s why China is emboldened — not just because of its own strength, but because it knows the world’s largest democracies are fragmented, distracted, and reluctant to act in concert. A multipolar world is forming whether we like it or not, and if we don’t want it to be dominated by Beijing and Moscow, we need India on our side.
India remains in BRICS not because it loves China or trusts Russia, but because BRICS offers it a stage, a voice among the big powers, and an escape hatch from Western pressure. If we want India to pivot toward the West, we need to make it worth their while. That doesn’t mean forcing NATO membership down their throat. It means giving them what BRICS cannot: a real seat at the table. A seat at an expanded G7 — we could even add Australia and maybe South Korea and call it the G9 or G10, whatever — alongside the U.S., Japan, Germany, and the world’s other free-market democracies, not as a junior varsity member, but as a peer, a rising superpower claiming its rightful seat at the table.
Offer them access to Western markets with fewer restrictions. Sell them oil at competitive rates so they don’t need Russia. Recognize their territorial claims in Kashmir, especially those disputed by China, as a way to show we are not neutral in this contest. Build a world in which India’s success is tied to partnership with the West, not one where we constantly test their patience.
We don’t need to buy India, nor bully it. We just need to build a future in which they want to stand with us because it benefits them to do so. Because in this new century, India isn’t just another country. It’s the fulcrum.
China is building its empire not just with warships, but with trade routes, diplomatic summits, and anti-Western alliances. Russia is trying to reassert itself as a global pole. Iran is exporting ideology and destabilization. BRICS, once a banker’s acronym, is now a geopolitical vehicle. And if we don’t act soon, it may become the default power bloc for half the world.
President Trump has never been shy about projecting strength. That strength should now be used not to alienate potential allies, but to rally them. The Trump Doctrine, if it is to evolve, must shift from unilateralism to coalition-building. Not out of weakness, but out of a recognition that we are stronger when we have powerful friends.
India should be one of those friends.
India doesn’t want to be a Chinese satellite. It doesn’t want to be trapped in a junior role beneath Beijing’s thumb. But unless we offer it a better alternative, one that affirms its independence and respects its ambition, that may be exactly where it ends up.
This is President Trump’s opportunity: to redefine the global chessboard, not with bromides about American dominance, but with a clear-eyed strategy for American-led alliances. India doesn’t belong in BRICS. It belongs with us.
Let’s invite them in, not with condescension, but with recognition. Because if we don’t, we may find ourselves on the wrong side of the balance, and this time, the world won’t tip in our favor.
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