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By:

Rajiv Shah

22 September 2025 at 8:32:23 pm

New Alliances, New Pressures, New Fault Lines

To its west, old relationships in the Gulf are acquiring new strategic and military dimensions. Across the Atlantic, Washington is increasingly using tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy. At the same time, India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and prepares to host its summit when the grouping is being watched in the West as a potential challenge to the American-dominated global financial order. Individually, these developments may appear unrelated. Put together, they reveal a larger...

New Alliances, New Pressures, New Fault Lines

To its west, old relationships in the Gulf are acquiring new strategic and military dimensions. Across the Atlantic, Washington is increasingly using tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy. At the same time, India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and prepares to host its summit when the grouping is being watched in the West as a potential challenge to the American-dominated global financial order. Individually, these developments may appear unrelated. Put together, they reveal a larger geopolitical churn in which alliances, energy, trade, currencies and economic coercion are becoming interconnected. India finds itself almost at its centre. The emerging Saudi Arabia–Türkiye–Pakistan security equation deserves particular attention. Saudi Arabia brings enormous financial and energy influence; Türkiye possesses considerable military strength, NATO experience and an expanding defence industry; Pakistan brings a large military establishment and nuclear capability with the open support of Washington. Any arrangement containing a collective-defence commitment naturally acquires significance beyond ordinary diplomatic cooperation. Alongside it, another strategic convergence has gradually developed among India, Israel and the UAE. It would be incorrect to describe this as a formal military alliance. Yet geopolitics does not operate through defence treaties alone. India's extensive defence and technology relationship with Israel, its rapidly expanding economic and strategic partnership with the UAE, and the UAE-Israel relationship following the Abraham Accords have created considerable common ground. I2U2—bringing together India, Israel, the UAE and the United States—added another institutional dimension. Thus, without necessarily becoming opposing military camps, two interesting strategic formations are visible across West Asia: Saudi Arabia–Türkiye–Pakistan and the looser India–UAE–Israel convergence. Balancing Challenge India faces a similar balancing challenge. The Gulf is not a distant geopolitical theatre for New Delhi. Nearly nine million Indians live and work there. India's energy security, investments, trade and remittance flows are closely connected with the region. The proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor also requires relative stability across this geography. Polarisation in West Asia can therefore rapidly become an Indian economic and strategic problem. There is another question Indian planners cannot ignore. If a future India-Pakistan confrontation escalates, how would any collective-defence commitment involving Pakistan be interpreted by Saudi Arabia and Türkiye? It would be alarmist to assume that either country would automatically enter a conflict against India. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has substantial economic and strategic interests in maintaining good relations with New Delhi. Nevertheless, defence planners are paid to examine possibilities before they become crises. While these equations develop in India's neighbourhood, economic pressure is emerging from Washington. The US Senate has voted 86–11 for legislation intended to increase pressure on Russia by targeting major purchasers of Russian energy. The measure could authorise tariffs reaching 100 per cent against goods from countries continuing large-scale purchases of Russian oil and gas, with India among those potentially exposed. China is powerful enough to shrug off similar challenges from the West." However this does not mean that America has already imposed a 100 per cent tariff on India. Further legislative steps remain necessary, and presidential waiver provisions are important. But the overwhelming Senate vote carries a political message that New Delhi cannot dismiss. Tariffs are no longer merely tools of trade protection; they have become instruments of geopolitical coercion. Washington's argument is understandable: revenues from Russian petroleum help sustain Moscow's economy during the Ukraine war, and reducing those revenues increases pressure on Russia. But in that case what about European countries who too were/are customers of Russian oil? India's question is equally legitimate: who should determine where India purchases the energy required by more than 1.4 billion people? If Russian crude remains commercially advantageous and helps contain domestic energy costs, New Delhi cannot reasonably be expected to make every energy decision according to another country's geopolitical priorities. Strategic partnership cannot become strategic obedience. This is where BRICS enters the larger picture. India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026 and will host its leaders at an unusually sensitive moment. BRICS is no longer merely the original grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Its expansion has considerably increased its demographic, energy and geopolitical weight. More importantly, discussions around BRICS increasingly touch a sensitive nerve in Washington: alternative payment mechanisms, local-currency trade, development finance and the possibility of gradually reducing dependence upon the dollar-dominated international financial system. The BRICS Summit this time is poised to take some decisive steps which may affect western interests especially US. (The writer is an advocate, legal, geopolitical and public policy analyst. Views personal.)

The Last Emperor

Even as his final World Cup ends in disappointment, Cristiano Ronaldo's influence on the game remains unmatched.

At 41, when most footballers are remembered through grainy highlights and nostalgic documentaries, Cristiano Ronaldo was still trying to win a World Cup. Portugal's elimination at the hands of Spain in the Round of 16 has almost certainly brought down the curtain on the greatest international career the sport has seen without its ultimate prize. Ronaldo himself acknowledged before the tournament that this would be his last World Cup. 


The absence of a World Cup title will tempt many to place Ronaldo behind his great rival Lionel Messi, whose victory in Qatar in 2022 appeared to settle, once and for all, the debate over football's greatest player. Yet, football has always had an uneasy habit of allowing one tournament to overshadow an entire career. While the World Cup remains the sport's supreme prize, but it has never been a flawless measure of individual greatness. George Best never played in one. Johan Cruyff reached a final but never lifted the trophy. Ferenc Puskás lost two finals. Alfredo Di Stéfano never appeared at the tournament at all. Conversely, players of far lesser individual distinction have become immortals by virtue of a few unforgettable weeks every four years.


Ronaldo belongs to the rarer category of footballers whose influence transcends a single competition. His career has always demanded a different yardstick. If Messi represents genius bestowed by nature, Ronaldo embodied genius manufactured through relentless self-improvement.


Born in Madeira in 1985 to a working-class family, Ronaldo possessed extraordinary pace and technique but not the polished completeness that later became his trademark. His move to Manchester United F.C. in 2003 under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson transformed an exuberant winger into a disciplined machine. Hours of practice refined his weaker foot, strengthened his physique and sharpened an already formidable competitive instinct.


His subsequent transfer to Real Madrid C.F. for what was then a world-record fee elevated him from star to institution. There he evolved into football's most devastating goal scorer. His rivalry with Messi transcended sport. Every weekend became another chapter in an extraordinary duel between two men who seemed intent on rewriting every statistical record available.


Ronaldo eventually conquered Italy with Juventus F.C., returned briefly to Manchester United before embarking on an unexpected final act in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr FC. Critics dismissed the move as retirement in disguise. Instead, it accelerated football's migration towards the Gulf, encouraging other stars to follow and permanently altering the economics of the global transfer market.


His influence extends beyond club football. Ronaldo became the most prolific scorer in men's international football, the most capped male international and the first player to score in six different World Cups. Portugal, once regarded as an entertaining but inconsistent football nation, matured into perennial contenders under his leadership. Victory at Euro 2016 and another UEFA Nations League title in 2025 ensured that his international career was decorated even if the World Cup remained elusive. 


Numbers alone, however, fail to explain Ronaldo's significance. He helped redefine what elite athletic longevity could look like. Meticulous attention to nutrition, sleep, recovery and conditioning turned him into perhaps football's greatest advertisement for sports science. Younger professionals increasingly copied his routines.


He also anticipated the age of the athlete as a global corporation. Before personal branding became mandatory, Ronaldo understood that celebrity could be monetised independently of club loyalties. His CR7 label expanded into fashion, hotels, fragrances and digital media, while his social-media following reached unprecedented levels, making him one of the world's most influential public figures far beyond football.


To detractors, Ronaldo could appear vain, theatrical and consumed by records. His emotional displays, extravagant celebrations and unmistakable confidence were interpreted as narcissism. But such criticism misses the essence of his appeal. 


His career has also mirrored football's transformation into a relentlessly commercial spectacle. The transfer fees, sponsorships and global audiences that accompanied him chart the sport's evolution from Europe's favourite pastime into a worldwide entertainment industry.


Ronaldo was not merely its beneficiary but became one of its principal architects.


History may ultimately rank Messi as the more naturally gifted footballer. But Ronaldo's legacy lies elsewhere. He demonstrated that age need not dictate decline, and that modern athletes can become multinational enterprises in their own right.


This World Cup trophy will never bear Cristiano Ronaldo's fingerprints. The modern game, however, bears them everywhere.

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