BRICS: India Is In, Pakistan Is OUT — What Went Wrong?

India is at the BRICS table. Pakistan isn't. Why? In this wide-ranging conversation, I speak with Robinder Sachdev about one of the most important changes taking place in South Asian geopolitics: India's ability to balance competing global powers while protecting its own strategic interests. New Delhi has maintained relationships across rival camps and continues to pursue what it regards as its own national interest. But what has made this balancing act possible? And, perhaps more importantly for Pakistani viewers: Why has Pakistan failed to secure comparable diplomatic space? We discuss the BRICS meeting, India's position within the emerging multipolar order, its relationships with major global powers, and the very different foreign-policy trajectories of India and Pakistan. This isn't simply an India-versus-Pakistan debate. It is about strategic autonomy. Why can some states work with competing powers without becoming completely dependent on any one of them? Why does economic weight matter in foreign policy? Can geography alone make a country strategically important? And has Pakistan spent too many decades viewing foreign policy through a security lens rather than building the economic and diplomatic power required to command a seat at the world's important tables? In this interview: • The significance of the latest BRICS meeting • India's role within BRICS • India's foreign-policy balancing act • Managing competing relationships • Strategic autonomy versus alliance dependency • Why Pakistan remains outside BRICS • India and Pakistan's contrasting international positions • The rise of the Global South • Whether BRICS can genuinely challenge the Western-led order • What Pakistan can learn from India's diplomacy This conversation may challenge audiences on both sides of the border. Watch the complete interview before reaching your conclusion. Pakistan doesn't need permanent friends or permanent enemies. It needs permanent national interests. #BRICS #India #Pakistan #Modi #Geopolitics #IndiaPakistan #ForeignPolicy #GlobalSouth #Russia #China #UnitedStates #StrategicAutonomy #RobinderSachdev #AdilRaja #SoldierSpeaks