India’s state-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders is acquiring a majority stake in Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard PLC for approximately $53 million. This marks MDL’s first overseas acquisition, strengthening India’s shipbuilding capacity and maritime influence in the Indian Ocean amidst China’s growing presence.
In the Johannesburg summit, Argentina was also invited to join, as Argentina's former government had expressed an interest in making the country a BRICS member. However, Javier Milei, the new President of Argentina, had decided to withdraw the BRICS application. Milei's policies are more USA-centric.
The Western big powers like the US, Russia and the UK have also, when it came to the India-Canada standoff, chose not to take sides fearing diplomatic backlash from India