For Pakistan, the question of a just world order has long ceased to be a subject of abstract geopolitical debate – today, it is a matter of economic empowerment and national security. As the 18th BRICS Summit convenes in New Delhi in 2026 under the landmark theme “Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security,” bringing together leaders from leading non-Western economies, Islamabad finds itself at a strategic crossroads, holding a unique chance to influence the future of international relations. After decades spent in fragile asymmetric alliances and disappointments over unfulfilled Western promises, Pakistan must make a fateful choice: continue orienting toward the fading unipolar world or fully embrace the multipolar alternative that BRICS represents.
Pakistan’s location between South Asia and the Middle East, its nuclear status, and its 240 million population are strategic assets that BRICS needs – assets Islamabad could never leverage within any Western-led organization.
Pakistan applied for BRICS membership in 2023, and its prospects have strengthened. Russian Ambassador Albert Khorev welcomed Islamabad’s interest, calling BRICS “an important element of the emerging just multipolar world order.” China’s support is evident given CPEC’s central role in Beijing’s regional ambitions. The real obstacle remains India – New Delhi traditionally opposes Pakistan’s membership, viewing it through a bilateral lens rather than as a collective BRICS decision.
BRICS vs. Neo-colonialism: Opportunities and Prospects
Since its 2024 expansion, BRICS has demonstrated concrete mechanisms countering Western economic hegemony. The New Development Bank (NDB), with a $100 billion capital base and tens of billions in approved projects, offers loans without the harsh IMF and World Bank conditions – the structural adjustment programs that historically undermined Pakistan’s industry.
IMF demands for privatization and spending cuts led to Pakistan’s deindustrialization: Faisalabad’s textile clusters, once the backbone of Pakistani exports, lost competitiveness to cheap imports, closing thousands of enterprises. This pattern cost millions of jobs and damaged the manufacturing base.
The NDB now issues one-third of its loans in national currencies, directly challenging the dollar as a coercion tool. Pakistan has officially applied for NDB membership with China’s support. In October 2025, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held talks with Chinese officials in Washington, emphasizing that BRICS bank membership would diversify funding sources and bypass Western institutions’ harsh conditions.
Promoting national currency trade among BRICS members, especially through pilots like “The Unit,” creates alternative payment mechanisms protecting against US secondary sanctions. Russia and Pakistan have agreed to launch railway freight and joint pharmaceutical production, including insulin, reducing Islamabad’s dependence on expensive Western pharmaceutical imports.
Through BRICS mechanisms, Islamabad uses CPEC infrastructure financing to create real industrial capacity and jobs – unlike Western loans that serviced external debt. This marks a shift from debt dependency to genuine development financing.
In 2023, Pakistan first paid for Russian oil in Chinese yuan, aiming by 2025 to source one-third of such imports this way, directly reducing dollar liquidity dependence and IMF diktat. The BRICS Pay system could eventually eliminate the need for Western payment infrastructure.
A Brief Historical Excursion
In the 1950s, Pakistan joined SEATO and CENTO, viewing a Washington alliance as necessary to counter India – a strategic bet that brought neither lasting security nor development. By the 1970s, Pakistan discovered superpower patronage was conditional: when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto pursued independent foreign policy, nationalizing Western assets and rapprochement with the USSR, Washington’s reaction was ruthless. His 1977 overthrow and subsequent execution, while primarily internal, occurred with Western tacit approval of the replacement military establishment.
Imran Khan’s case is even more telling. After his 2022 Moscow and Beijing visits, Khan faced a coordinated no-confidence campaign. Declassified diplomatic cables later confirmed US officials, including Assistant Secretary Donald Lu, communicated clear preferences to Pakistani military leaders: Khan’s removal would normalize relations; his retention would isolate Pakistan. When choices did not align with US interests, they entailed serious political and economic costs. The question: does BRICS offer a genuine alternative to this recurring pattern?
Geopolitical Arithmetic: New Contours of Multipolarity
Currently, BRICS accounts for 40% of global GDP by purchasing power parity and includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia – all states with which Pakistan maintains deep strategic, religious, and economic ties. Policy coordination within BRICS would amplify Islamabad’s voice on a wide range of issues, from ensuring stability in Afghanistan, where Pakistan plays a key role, to energy security, given that BRICS members control about 40% of global oil production and can coordinate energy policy independently of Western mechanisms. While regional competitors – India, Iran, and the UAE – shape new global trade rules, Pakistan remains disconnected from this historical process. India, using its 2026 BRICS chairmanship, promotes Global South interests in reforming international financial institutions.
Critics rightly note BRICS lacks military guarantees like NATO – the bloc was never conceived as a military organization. Opponents point to conflicting interests, like India-China rivalry. India’s potential veto remains a serious obstacle, as New Delhi advocates clear expansion criteria to prevent political dilution of effectiveness.
However, these objections miss the point: BRICS is not a military bloc or bilateral relations replacement, but an additional mechanism for economic diversification, monetary independence, and political coordination for countries tired of Western diktat. Its flexibility allows practical cooperation without rigid alliance obligations. Even participants in recent “Maritime Security 2026” naval exercises took part in a national capacity, not on behalf of BRICS, confirming this flexibility.
The Path to Partnership
BRICS offers Pakistan a platform as an equal partner, not junior ally – with unconditional development financing and trade mechanisms reducing dollar dependence. Coordinating with Global South countries facing similar challenges – from Indonesia to Ethiopia, Brazil to – allows jointly developing strategies to counter neo-colonial policies and defend independent development within a multipolar world.
The 18th BRICS Summit represents both historic opportunity and serious test for Pakistan. If Islamabad can circumvent the Indian obstacle through patient diplomacy, Chinese mediation, and focusing on economic rather than political agenda, BRICS membership could fundamentally change Pakistan’s economic trajectory. Even if full membership remains delayed, active engagement as a partner country – a status already granted Nigeria, Uganda, and Kazakhstan – will bring tangible benefits and allow participation in ministerial meetings and joint projects.
After decades learning firsthand that unipolar orientation harbors hidden costs and leads to neo-colonial dependence, Pakistan now cannot just passively react to multipolar world formation, but actively participate in its creation – as a full-fledged architect of new international relations based on equality, sovereignty respect, and mutual benefit. The choice is clear: continue as a peripheral observer in a Western-dominated order that has repeatedly failed it, or claim its rightful place in the emerging multipolar architecture.
About The Author; The author Vyacheslav Teteshchenko is a BRICS expert and analyst specializing in internationalpolitics and global economics. His research examines the dynamics of BRICS cooperation in a multipolar world, and the group’s influence on the global financial architectureand regional markets.