The U.S. established and extinguished multilateralism
The current super power has marginalised the United Nations, and, with it, emasculated the collective bargaining strength of the Global South — there will be no going back. The U.S. is now engaging countries with strategic commerce-related bilateral deals that fragment the global order. The asymmetry of power is such that there was no opposition in the BRICS Summit in July 2025.
The BRICS Declaration that comprised 31 pages and included 126 outcomes failed to note the rejection of multilateralism which required a focus on South-South cooperation. Essentially, unilateral tariffs are a means to bring individual countries to the table for seeking concessions, not global consensus.
The U.S. shock
Mr. Trump is fully aware that 2025 is not 1950 and the U.S. cannot shape a new common global framework. The national interest of the U.S. now is self-sufficiency and containment of China's influence flowing from the world's reliance on its products, which is the other side of the coin. Over the last 25 years, the world has become interconnected and the spheres of influence, trade and financial sanctions provide a more effective management tool than leverage through global intuitions. As a result, no one really knows how to respond as 75 years of diplomatic history has been erased by raw power.
Where does this state of flux leave India with its young population having the potential to be the third largest economy in 2027 and overtake the U.S. by 2075, with global influence based on leadership of the Global South? The answer lies in accepting the end of multilateralism. The answer lies in focusing on national prosperity and South-South cooperation.
The glue binding the Global South can no longer be financial benefits of a voting bloc in the UN. India needs their support in elections and positions in various committees for global influence; it has already lost the elected post of vice chair of the Executive Board of UNESCO to Pakistan. India needs to specify 'strategic autonomy' for what it is, namely, neutrality between major powers and enunciating its core interests in its own voting pattern.
Second, the challenge for a continental size 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' of one billion people is to look east, and not west, for ideas. Trade concessions to the U.S. should be tuned to trade agreements with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Similarly, the loss of exports to the U.S., for example, steel, can be offset by a network of expressways, high speed rail, data centres with assured electricity and science universities reorienting consumption and exports. In 2013, China spent almost half its GDP on infrastructure; such scale alone makes for sustainable double digit growth.
Third, India's intrinsic strength is being at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution, a new chapter in human development. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, India has overtaken the U.K. and Germany in the number of GenAI patents published, and has a strong foundation for endogenous growth and well-being.
Fourth, the world over, military doctrines are being re-written for reliance on integrated air defence, satellites, missiles, drones and cyber. For the first time since Independence, India is in a position to be a global leader in all domains, enabling a substantial reduction in costly ground forces and imported large platforms, giving flexibility in foreign policy and spin-offs for growth.
Fifth, India is already revisiting the way it has framed border issues leftover from colonialism and needs to push this to focus on growth. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's assertion that India and China should not 'remain stuck in the past', achieve trust and work on the goal of demarcation of an international border has been favourably received by China that is preoccupied with Taiwan and in responding to Mr Trump. The Indus Waters Treaty, where Pakistan is keen to engage, provides a new frame to achieve similar trust. An international border in eastern Ladakh will be a decisive step to settling the international border in Jammu and Kashmir. The real lesson from 'Operation Sindoor' is the oldest one in military history — wisdom lies in knowing when to stop. In India's case, it is clear that there will not be a military solution.
Summit as opportunity
Last, the BRICS Summit in India in 2026 provides an opportunity to revitalise the Global South around cooperation jettisoning the multilateral practice of collective bargaining by the G-77 seeking benefits from the G-7. The future lies in sharing prosperity by reorienting tariffs and value chains to divert exports to meet growing consumption in the South. It should be possible at the low prices the South currently gets, and done in a manner that complements, not threatens, local production. Certainly a seismic shift, but so was multilateralism in 1950.
Mukul Sanwal is a former United Nations diplomat
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
25 minutes ago
- Mint
The math behind Trump's Fed critique doesn't add up
President Donald Trump has long called himself the King of Debt, his companies' six bankruptcies notwithstanding. But as one of his recent Truth Social posts shows, he surely isn't the King of Arithmetic. On July 9, as part of his ongoing pressure campaign against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Trump posted this on Truth Social: 'Our Fed Rate is AT LEAST 3 Points too high. 'Too Late' is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs." That figure—$360 billion in savings per percentage point drop in the federal-funds rate—probably looks right to people who don't know how the U.S. national debt works, which may well include Trump himself. But it isn't right. Yes, with the U.S. national debt at $36.6 trillion, a 1% drop in the debt's rate would, in fact, save taxpayers about $360 billion a year in interest costs. (Not in 'refinancing costs"—but let's give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant 'interest costs.") And yes, the Fed controls the fed-funds rate, a short-term rate that affects the interest cost of the Treasury's short-term borrowings. However, there are several major problems with Trump's math and his logic. Here is the deal. The Fed doesn't control midterm and long-term borrowing rates—the type of borrowing that makes up the bulk of the publicly traded national debt. Short-term Treasury bills, which are the only part of the debt that is heavily affected by the Fed-funds rate, make up just $5.78 trillion of the total publicly traded debt. But the amount of outstanding T-bills is dwarfed by the $15.07 trillion of outstanding Treasury notes, with an average interest rate of 3.05%, and the $5.03 trillion of outstanding bonds, which has an average interest rate of 3.3%. Overall, the publicly tradable portion of the debt has a weighted average maturity—the average amount of time until the government must pay—of a bit under six years. The average interest rate is 3.3%. So even if Jerome Powell woke up tomorrow morning and asked his fellow Fedniks to cut the fed-funds rate from its current 4.25%-4.5% to 3.25%-3.5%, it wouldn't save taxpayers anything resembling the $360 billion a year that Trump has touted. My calculations suggest the figure is closer to $90 billion. I wanted to discuss this mathematical discrepancy with the Trump administration, but the White House press office declined to comment. Whatever you might think of Trump and his policies, numbers are numbers. Sure, a lower fed-funds interest rate would reduce the interest expenses of the Treasury—i.e., taxpayers—below what they would otherwise be when the Treasury issues short-term debt. We are sure to see a lot of that happening soon, given the current federal budget deficit and the $3.4 trillion to $5 trillion in additional deficits that some nonpartisan groups estimate will be caused by Trump's signature Big Beautiful tax legislation over the next decade. I have been writing about Trump since his days as a New York City real estate developer. At the time, he didn't have much of a national profile, or a way with numbers. His numbers often turned out poorly for him and his creditors. His now-vanished casino empire in New Jersey had no fewer than five Chapter 11 bankruptcies: one for each of the three casinos he owned, then two more for the postbankruptcy company that was created to hold his three casinos after their initial bankruptcy filings. The company had a third bankruptcy, but by then Trump wasn't running it. Trump's Plaza Hotel in New York went bankrupt, too. When he was elected president in 2016, Trump said he would produce budget surpluses and repay the entire national debt in just eight years. Instead, the debt grew by about $8 trillion during his first term—although, in fairness, part of that debt-growth was caused by the economic damage of the Covid-19 pandemic. As Trump continues his campaign against Powell, look for him to produce more whimsical numbers that are meant to point to Powell's supposed part in creating federal budget deficits, for which Trump doesn't seem to accept any blame. But make sure to take Trump's numbers with a grain of salt. Or even better, with a saltshaker full. Allan Sloan is an independent business journalist and seven-time winner of the Loeb Award, business journalism's highest honor. Email: editors@
Time of India
38 minutes ago
- Time of India
Naked woman, signature on private parts: What did Trump's letter for Epstein's 50th birthday include? MAGA rallies as US President threatens to sue
A bizarre birthday letter gifted to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 has started a row surrounding the MAGA chief himself. Donald Trump seems to be in deep trouble as The Wall Street Journal revealed and reported a note gifted to the pedophile Epstein bearing Trump's name and included a crude drawing of a naked woman. The US president has strongly denied the claims and threatened legal action. The letter is part of a collection compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday, featuring an outline of a woman's body with the word 'Donald' written where pubic hair would be. It also included typewritten text and concluded with the line: 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.' The note was included in a birthday album reportedly assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell , Epstein's former right-hand woman and convicted child sex trafficker. The letter in question had been part of the material reviewed by justice department investigators in a previous probe into Epstein's activities. The birthday album compiled by Maxwell included messages from multiple high-profile individuals and was created as a keepsake for Epstein's 50th birthday celebration. WSJ reviewed the document and published its findings on Thursday. This was followed by an immediate and aggressive response from Trump. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo He denied both writing the letter and drawing the image. 'I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women,' Trump told The Wall Street Journal. 'It's not my language. It's not my words.' He further threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp and Rupert Murdoch for publishing the story. 'President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly,' read a Truth Social post made Thursday. Trump also claimed his team, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, had warned the outlet not to publish what he called a 'fake' letter. That same night, Trump said on Truth Social that he had authorised Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce 'any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.' Bondi responded on X that she was prepared to do so. MAGA bigwigs scramble to defend their boss US vice president JD Vance came to Trump's defence, calling the Journal article 'complete and utter bullshit' in a post on X. Prominent MAGA supporters were quick to dismiss the report as false. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has been demanding more transparency from the administration on the Epstein files, wrote on X: 'Everyone who actually KNOWS President Trump knows he doesn't type letters. He writes notes in big black Sharpie.' Charlie Kirk, another influential Trump ally, also rejected the idea that Trump authored the note. 'This is not how Trump talks at all. I don't believe it,' he wrote. Trump also faces revolt from the Republican base The report has emerged at a time when Trump's handling of the Epstein investigation is under increasing scrutiny from within his own base. A faction of Trump supporters had expected his administration to release all remaining Epstein-related files, and were angered when the justice department announced last week that it would not be doing so. In a memo, the department said that Epstein died by suicide and that there was no 'client list.' The decision triggered a backlash from several Trump allies who had been calling for greater disclosure. However, Trump lashed out at the criticism. 'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. He later said Bondi could release any 'credible' files on the matter but also criticised 'stupid and foolish Republicans' for continuing to press the issue. Karoline Leavitt clarified on Thursday that Trump 'would not recommend' the appointment of a special counsel to reopen the Epstein investigation. Trump and Epstein's bond Trump had known Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s and was photographed with him on several occasions. His name also appeared in flight logs of Epstein's private jet. However, Trump has repeatedly insisted that their friendship ended well before Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. He also stated they had not spoken in around 15 years by the time Epstein was arrested again in 2019. Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by medical examiners, but the circumstances have led to ongoing speculation and conspiracy theories.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Pahalgam terror attack: US designates TRF as 'terror outfit'; India lauds decision
NEW DELHI: India on Friday welcomed the United States' decision to formally designate The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The move follows TRF's claimed role in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack , which killed 26 civilians. In a statement issued on Friday, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said, 'The Government of India welcomes the decision of the United States Department of State to designate The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). We acknowledge and appreciate the leadership of Secretary of State Mr. Marco Rubio in this regard.' The MEA added that TRF, as a proxy of LeT, has been responsible for 'numerous terror-related activities, including the heinous attack on civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on 22 April 2025 for which it twice claimed responsibility.' External affairs minister S Jaishankar described the US decision as a 'strong affirmation of India-US counter-terrorism cooperation.' In a social media post, he said, 'Appreciate @SecRubio and @StateDept for designating TRF – a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) proxy – as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Many Are Watching Tariffs - Few Are Watching What Nvidia Just Launched Seeking Alpha Read More Undo It claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam attack. Zero tolerance for terrorism.' According to the US State Department, the Pahalgam attack was 'the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks conducted by LeT.' The Department added that TRF has also claimed responsibility for 'several attacks against Indian security forces, including most recently in 2024.' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, 'These actions taken by the Department of State demonstrate the Trump Administration's commitment to protecting our national security interests, countering terrorism, and enforcing President Trump's call for justice for the Pahalgam attack.' He further added, 'TRF and other associated aliases have been added to LeT's designation as a FTO and SDGT pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, respectively. The Department of State has also reviewed and maintained the FTO designation of LeT. Amendments to FTO designations go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register.' India's embassy in Washington also issued a statement, calling the move 'another demonstration of strong India-USA counter-terrorism cooperation.' It said, 'TRF is a proxy of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and claimed responsibility for the April 22 terror attack on civilians in Pahalgam. ZERO TOLERANCE for terrorism!'
