INDIA COULD be warming up to the idea of plurilateral deals backed by major trading powers including China, months after it lodged strong reservation against such pacts at WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Cameroon.
"We will ensure the implementation of the MC14 outcomes and continue to engage constructively towards the resolution of outstanding issues. We will engage constructively in the WTO's reform to enhance the WTO's authority, effectiveness, inclusiveness, and relevance, and build an open world economy."
"In this regard, we recognise that it is important to identify appropriate pathways for plurilateral initiatives into the WTO legal framework including on development-oriented issues, and to explore the formulation of forward-looking rules in the WTO," the BRICS Delhi Declaration 2026 said on Saturday.
This comes as the Delhi Declaration 2026 said BRICS members recognise the importance to identify "pathways" for plurilateral initiatives in the WTO legal framework.
Plurilateral agreements are negotiated and implemented by exclusive groups rather than by all WTO members, and have begun being featured prominently in various WTO reform-related proposals.
However, India has blocked insertion of IFD plurilateral into the WTO rule book. Under WTO rules, a plurilateral agreement can be included into family of agreements "exclusively by consensus".
The IFD or Investment Facilitation for Development initiative is a plurilateral pact launched by the WTO in 2017, aimed at enhancing foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.
This is a quiet U-turn. In March, at MC14, India blocked China's Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) pact from becoming an Annex 4 agreement, arguing investment is not trade and plurilaterals erode multilateralism. As BRICS chair, it demanded "guardrails". Now Delhi Declaration 2026 drops the word "guardrails" and talks of "pathways" for plurilaterals, even on development issues. Why? Two pressures: WTO reform talks now hinge on plurilaterals - if India stays out, rules on digital, food security get written without it. And isolating China on IFD while needing BRICS consensus is untenable. The trade-off: India may lift its reservation on IFD in exchange for legal safeguards that plurilaterals can't bypass consensus later. From sole opponent to pathway-finder - classic Indian trade diplomacy.