‘We know how to play hardball’: Shashi Tharoor on India-China ties ahead of Modi-Xi meet

As India hosts the 18th BRICS Summit, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs chairman Shashi Tharoor outlined the core foreign policy challenges, strategic trade dilemmas, and high-stakes diplomatic tightropes facing New Delhi in an exclusive interview with The Indian Express's Neeta Sharma.

While acknowledging the weight of hosting more than a dozen heads of state and government, Tharoor highlighted that India's priority must remain preservation of its national interest above collective multilateral goals. Tharoor also addressed the focus of the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Addressing the ongoing friction along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Tharoor argued that India is acting wisely by continuing multilateral cooperation with China on platforms like BRICS, but cautioned against confusing bilateral realities with broad forum objectives.

"Galwan was a completely unprovoked transgression by them which resulted in the death of 20 jawans, and we will clearly want to restore the status quo ante, which hasn't fully happened," Tharoor said. Beyond border standoffs, Tharoor pointed out China's ongoing economic pressure tactics, including the withholding of essential industrial inputs like rare earths, tunnel boring machines, and power substations.

He noted that China has weaponised India's import dependencies to establish leverage. ALSO READ | BRICS summit: What trajectory of China-India ties means for the grouping Tharoor also spoke about New Delhi's precarious position regarding Russia, particularly the threat of the US imposing up to 100% sanctions on countries continuing Russian crude oil purchases.

Tharoor observed that while India previously scaled back energy imports and participation in Iran's Chabahar project to honour American sanctions, applying the same formula to Russia is way more tough. This is because of the sheer volume of India's energy demand.

Sourcing crude oil from alternative producers like Venezuela or Guyana would drastically inflate transport costs. He suggested the government might eventually need to prioritise energy security over Western trade access.

"Sometimes it may be necessary for us to tell our Indian exporters, 'Sorry guys, we have to risk American sanctions and you may lose your market there; but we have made it easy for you to find markets elsewhere in the world… I'm afraid we cannot save you from America, because we cannot afford to lose our imports from Russia'." Tharoor added that India also sells refined petroleum products back to Russia, making energy cooperation a vital two-way trade stream that New Delhi cannot easily abandon.

He said India can try to persuade Washington for more time and breathing space to work on continuing this relationship. ALSO READ | Explained: Why you can’t put all of BRICS in the anti-West box On economic policy within the expanded 11-member bloc (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia), Tharoor cautioned against joint de-Dollarisation pushes that favor a Chinese Yuan-dominated alternative.

Instead, he backed a bilateral local-currency arrangements, such as the Rupee-Ruble trade with Russia. Tharoor also addressed the absence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Tariq Rahman, who reportedly declined attendance over an apparent confusion regarding whether he was invited as Prime Minister or as BIMSTEC chairman.

Calling the explanation from Dhaka "very odd" and a "clutching-at-straws kind of argument", Tharoor clarified that an invitation to the BIMSTEC chair inherently honours the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. On the constant geopolitical shifts recently, Tharoor said that India must veto any attempt by China or Russia to grant Pakistan entry into BRICS as Islamabad has taken no step to dismantle cross-border terror infrastructure.

Regarding Pakistan's upcoming chairmanship of the SCO, he recommended maintaining engagement to safeguard Indian interests, noting that other member states would likely prevent Islamabad from using the chair to derail the organisation's viability.