Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: India stands to profit from the latest BRICS growth, protests erupt in Pakistan over excessive electrical energy prices, and Nepal implements a big U.S. infrastructure grant.

The major headline from final week’s BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, is that the bloc will expand, including new members for the primary time since South Africa’s admission in 2010. It could also be simple to see the enlargement of BRICS—at present made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—as a nasty factor for New Delhi. After all, extra members may elevate Beijing’s affect within the group.

Some observers are additionally involved about BRICS’s future orientation. One of the brand new members, Iran, is at odds with the West; the group—initially supposed to advertise the voices of rising economies—could take on a extra clearly anti-Western stance, particularly given China’s and Russia’s affect. That would current a problem for India, which goals to stability relations with the West and the nations past it.

However, this evaluation overlooks the potential advantages of BRICS growth for India. First, extra members might grant China extra affect on the worldwide stage, however it additionally means extra affect for BRICS itself. That is nice for India, which has lengthy seen the bloc as an vital entity as a result of it champions the causes of the worldwide south and contributes to multipolarity, two foreign-policy priorities for New Delhi.

Aside from Iran, the opposite new members—Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—will not be staunchly anti-West. As a end result, a bigger BRICS can hardly be described as an anti-Western bloc. And half of the brand new members are high Indian companions: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Finally, many of the additions are within the Middle East, a rising area for New Delhi’s engagement due to energy and trade interests and broader geopolitical considerations.

The BRICS growth didn’t go solely New Delhi’s means. India was reportedly against including one other nation that’s topic to worldwide sanctions resembling Iran, which isn’t solely hostile towards the West but in addition expanding ties with China. Analysts have rightly noted that many of the new members are additionally key sources of engagement for Beijing.

But it may have been a lot worse for India, particularly because it additionally enjoys relations with the entire new members, including Iran. New Delhi will see six pleasant nations added to BRICS, most of them in a area key to Indian pursuits.

India may face new challenges sooner or later: BRICS may increase additional, and the subsequent spherical of recent members might not be as favorable to India. For instance, China and Russia may push for Pakistan to hitch, though its weak financial system would make it a poor candidate. But India enjoys robust ties with the worldwide south, largely due to its historic position as a pacesetter of the Non-Aligned Movement in the course of the Cold War. Most potential new BRICS members can be no less than pleasant to New Delhi.

Ultimately, discussions about what BRICS growth means for India could also be getting forward of themselves. That’s as a result of new members may exacerbate one of many bloc’s weaknesses: a battle to execute, or as FP’s C. Raja Mohan describes it, to show “soaring rhetoric on global issues into concrete, practical outcomes.” This stems from BRICS’s consensus-based decision-making course of. With 11 members as an alternative of 5, will probably be much more troublesome to achieve consensus.

For now, this a lot is true: BRICS growth may advance Indian pursuits, giving New Delhi extra clout with a set of countries with which it’s eager to increase relations.

Pakistan’s electrical energy protests. Tens of 1000’s of Pakistanis took to the streets starting final Friday, when electrical energy payments rose considerably throughout the nation. Protesters have obstructed roads, burned their power payments, and staged sit-ins exterior energy firm workplaces. Many individuals have refused to pay their payments till costs come down. An influential non secular political get together, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, ordered a nationwide strike for Saturday.

A caretaker authorities took over in Islamabad only a few weeks in the past, and it raised electrical energy tariffs due to forex devaluation and rising petroleum costs. Lowering the tariffs may violate Pakistan’s new settlement with the International Monetary Fund, which requires austerity measures. Local media reports that the federal government sees few short-term options, except for delaying fee deadlines or establishing an installment plan.

With hovering summer season warmth more likely to proceed for just a few extra weeks in Pakistan, public anger is unlikely to abate.

Nepal implements MCC grant. On Wednesday, Nepal formally implemented an infrastructure grant from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which incorporates street development and a brand new electrical energy transmission line, amongst different initiatives. Nepal’s Parliament took a number of years to ratify the grant, largely as a result of U.S. officers have directly linked the grant to the U.S. Indo-Pacific technique, elevating considerations that it may drag Nepal into great-power competitors.

The MCC grant was signed in 2017 and ratified final yr, after Washington reportedly threatened to revisit ties with Kathmandu if lawmakers didn’t put an finish to their resistance. As the grant’s implementation date grew nearer, China intensified its personal engagements with Nepal. In July, the 2 capitals signed an agreement to speed up efforts to finish present initiatives related to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Afghanistan marks two years since U.S. exit. Wednesday marks two years since U.S. forces accomplished their withdrawal from Afghanistan, and this week introduced extra of the gloomy information that has change into so frequent within the nation since. The Taliban announced new restrictions on ladies’s motion within the nation on Sunday, banning ladies from visiting a preferred nationwide park in Bamiyan province.

A Taliban official stated the ban was imposed as a result of ladies had been seen within the park not carrying their hijabs correctly.

Imran Khan’s political destiny. On Tuesday, the Islamabad High Court suspended former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s three-year jail sentence for a corruption conviction. Khan has been behind bars since Aug. 5. However, on the identical day, one other court docket announced that Khan will probably be placed on trial for a separate case on the jail the place he’s being held, which means he’ll stay in jail.

This isn’t stunning, on condition that Khan faces multiple charges associated to alleged corruption, terrorism, and his dealing with of categorized paperwork—all of which his supporters say are politically motivated. Pakistan’s navy desires to make sure that Khan isn’t capable of take part in Pakistan’s subsequent election. With the timeframe for the vote unclear, which means Khan may face months of jail time.

Iwama Kiminori, Japan’s ambassador to Bangladesh, announced final weekend that the nation will probably be simply considered one of 4 to obtain help underneath Japan’s new Official Security Assistance undertaking. Bangladesh’s inclusion within the initiative was previewed in a joint assertion after a gathering between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo in April.

The transfer underscores an oft-overlooked relationship that has quietly grown stronger in recent times. Japan has lengthy been a top development partner for Bangladesh. Tokyo has supplied funds for a number of high-visibility infrastructure initiatives, together with a new port and a new elevated metro rail system in Dhaka that opened in December.

It now seems that their partnership will prolong to safety. Kiminori stated that Bangladesh’s inclusion within the Official Security Assistance undertaking will allow extra cooperation between the nations’ safety forces and that the pair have already mentioned stepping up protection commerce in each arms and expertise.