In a report filed by The Business Standard on August 8, 2026, India, current BRICS chair, opposes a proposal for a common currency to counter the US dollar.

The Indian Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, told reporters in Jaipur, Rajasthan, northwestern India, after a two-day BRICS trade and industry meetings, that India was not in favour of a BRICS currency. He added, that India did not support the introduction of any such BRICS currency scheme.

It is good these things are showing signs at this early stages of attempts by BRIC member countries to crystallise a research finding published by a British economist at Goldman Sachs, Jim O’Neil, in 2001.

None of the leaders and country members of BRICS ever conceived on record the offing of such economic or political bloc until the research publication which surged leaders of mentioned countries to marshall resources and began a dialogue of formalisation.

The current membership that started involuntarily with just Brazil, Russia, India, and China as a concept published by a research economist, that later included South Africa, now has 10 members – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.

Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, are designated partner countries that participate in framework meetings without full voting rights.

Originally, the publication by Jim O’Neil wasn’t intended and purposed as vehicle for the political grouping that has drawn the attention of the rest of the world, as mentioned members took a step farther from the appraisal or assessment paper to coalesce into a political force overflowing its original boundaries today.

For the above reasons, the initial step of early contacts was to take advantage of things in common in member countries for the stimulation of economic growth and global prosperity. At that stage, suspicions were managed and future plans didn’t consider historical political differences and disagreements as grounds for suspicion or discontinuation of cooperation.

Of course, China and India had trust issues over decades of border disputes. And in the early stages of heightened escalations of Russian-Ukrainian relationship when India offered to mediate and broker for ceasefire and eventual peace, Russia wasn’t sceptical but took steps to host the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

But at the back of the mind of Russian-Indian relationship, history was revealing about betrayals, especially after what the country endured in assassinations of leading members of the Indian National Congress, that killed Indira Gandhi and swept her son, Rajiv Gandhi, and thereafter ravaged the family dynasty with threats of violence.

These paved way for the emergence of Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist party, and its leader, Narendra Modi. The BJP is not directly responsible for the intimidation and violent campaign against the INC, a close former Soviet-era ally of Russia, but a beneficiary. It is grounds to suspect a frosty relationship with Russia, although concealed in diplomatic niceties and global market dynamics of cross-border business and trade.

India turned into the redistribution hub of Russian discounted grains and oil supplies as a third country, after sanctions were imposed on Russia in what Russia described as a demilitarisation and denazification special operations in Ukraine.

India is considered by western powers as a democracy. It was once a British colony, gaining independence on August 15, 1947. It is also a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. On a normal day, it doesn’t add or take away anything. But under these circumstances, these are serious factors t consider in arriving at a decision.

Be it as it may, China and Russia have found their way out in world trade, bypassing SWIFT. China operates the Cross-border Inter-bank Payment System, whilst Russia is running the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS). India has IMPS and NEFT. In principle, these payment systems bypass SWIFT and the US dollar, nonetheless.

As the world waits to hear India back its dissenting views with supporting facts, world trade will never remain the same again.

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Shmuel Ja’Mba Abm has extensive scholarly publications that establish him as a leading academic expert in regional geopolitical dynamics and diplomatic relations in Africa. Author of e-monographs on geopolitics, ethnic conflicts, and political philosophy. Ja’Mba Abm is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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