India’s successful Group of 20 (G20) presidency in 2023 has drawn attention to the country’s foreign policy approach in the face of growing great power polarization and the crisis of multilateralism. New Delhi seeks to engage all centres of power and reach out to as many multilateral groupings as possible, while continuing its cautious balancing act in global affairs. Additionally, India is positioning itself as a bridge between East and West, a responsible power capable of providing development assistance to needy countries and acting as a “voice of the global South.”

The author argues that the policy of multi-alignment and the positioning as a vishwa mitra (friend of the world) are intended to enable India to achieve a new status in the system of global governance. The study of official documents and literature has shown that New Delhi’s key imperative in this path is to maintain its independence of decision-making, while the main challenge is to address the potential discontent on the part of foreign partners with the opportunistic nature of Indian approaches.

The article deciphers India’s policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a region that has not previously been a priority for Indian foreign policy. The author identifies four aspects of India’s approach to expanding its presence in LAC: strengthening ties with specific states (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico); promoting economic projects in sectors with competitive advantages for Indian companies; developing contacts with regional integration associations (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Central American Integration System (SICA), and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)) and interaction in multilateral formats (G20, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others), IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa), and the Group of 4 (G4)); and exploiting cultural and historical ties and the influence of the diaspora. The growing engagement with the LAC region is a manifestation of India’s more ambitious identity and its intention to make the transition from a “balancing power to a leading power.”

This paper has been supported by the grants from the Russian Science Foundation, RSF 22-78-10014, https://rscf.ru/project/22-78-10014/

This article was submitted on  11.03.2024