The Hindu Editorial Analysis
16 July 2025
The U.S. established and extinguished multilateralism
(Source – The Hindu, International Edition – Page No. – 8)
Topic : GS 2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
Context
As a result, India must set a new path for itself and the Global South based on unity and shared progress.
Introduction
Donald Trump, the U.S. President, represents a bigger global change happening now—one that actually supports India’s rise. The United States has weakened the United Nations and reduced the power of the Global South to bargain together, and there’s likely no turning back. Instead of global deals, the U.S. now prefers one-on-one trade agreements, which are breaking up the global system. The power imbalance is so strong that no one objected at the BRICS Summit in July 2025. Although the BRICS Declaration was 31 pages long with 126 listed results, it ignored the decline of multilateralismand failed to push for more South-South cooperation. Today’s unilateral tariffs are not about global unity—they are used to pressure individual countries into making trade concessions.
The U.S. shock
1. Global Power Shift and the End of Multilateralism
- Former President Trump recognizes that the world in 2025 is very different from 1950 — the U.S. can no longer shape global rules alone.
- America’s focus is now on self-reliance and containing China’s global influence, not building international institutions.
- Over the last 25 years, global connectivity, trade, and sanctions have replaced diplomacy through multilateral platforms.
- This shift leaves the world uncertain, as traditional global cooperation frameworks are weakening.
2. India’s Role in a Changing World
- India, with its young population, is on track to become the third-largest economy by 2027 and may even surpass the U.S. by 2075.
- To adapt, India must move beyond multilateralism and focus on national growth and stronger ties within the Global South.
- India should clearly define ‘strategic autonomy’ — meaning neutrality between major powers and independent voting in international forums.
- Diplomatic efforts must aim at gaining support for leadership roles in global bodies, as shown by India’s recent loss to Pakistan at UNESCO.
3. Path to Prosperity: Look East and Invest at Home
- India should seek ideas and trade ties with Southeast Asia, not depend too much on the West.
- Losses in U.S. trade (like steel exports) can be replaced by investing in infrastructure: roads, railways, energy, tech hubs, and research universities.
- Like China in 2013, India needs massive investment in infrastructure to achieve long-term, high growth.
4. India’s Strengths: Tech, Defence, and Diplomacy
- India is becoming a leader in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in GenAI patents and innovation.
- In defence, India is modernizing with missiles, drones, cyber tech, and satellites, reducing the need for large ground forces and giving more foreign policy flexibility.
- On the border front, India must move from conflict to dialogue, especially with China and Pakistan, aiming for peaceful settlements like demarcating the Ladakh border.
- The key lesson is: growth, not war, must be the focus.
Conclusion
Summit as opportunity
The upcoming BRICS Summit in India in 2026 is a chance for the Global South to work together in new ways. Instead of relying on G-77’s old approach of asking the G-7 for support, the focus should shift to sharing growth among Southern countries. This can be done by changing trade rules and supply chains to help Southern nations export more and meet their own rising demand. These exports can be offered at the affordable prices already common in the South, without hurting local industries. This would be a big change, but no bigger than the rise of multilateralism in the 1950s.