Jeffrey Sachs calls US, India, China, and Russia world's four superpowers, urges cooperation over confrontation

American economist and foreign policy expert Jeffrey Sachs has described India, the United States, China, and Russia as the world's four superpowers, urging them to cooperate and respect one another's sovereignty. He said the countries should avoid interfering in each other's internal affairs, positioning their militaries against one another or forming alliances against each other.

Jeffry Sachs explains why India should not fear China

US economist Jeffrey Sachs has called for greater cooperation between India and China, saying that collaboration between the two Asian powers could help create a multipolar world. The two Asian economic powerhouses can help to build a truly multipolar world, the economist argued. He also said India should not fear China and that Beijing should promote New Delhi as the 6th permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Understand that China and India working together makes the multipolar world, not the competition between them," Sachs said.

"I strongly believe that India will not be the new world hegemon, and China will not be the new hegemon," he argued.

Jeffrey Sachs is the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He was speaking at the World Symposium in Varanasi on Monday, which brought together 200 scholars, philosophers and experts from across the world.

The economist projected that by the end of this century, India would have twice the population of China and emerge as the single largest economy. "This is absolutely in the deep trends," he said.

Sachs cautions India against joining anti-China groupings like Quad, calls for improved ties with Beijing

India, the world's most populous country, has an economy valued at around $4 trillion, compared with China's $19.5 trillion. According to the IMF, the two Asian neighbours are projected to record GDP growth of 7% and 4.5%, respectively, in 2026.

New Delhi and Beijing were locked in a years-long diplomatic and economic battle following a border standoff in 2020. In 2024, the leaders of the two neighbours met at the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan and announced their willingness to improve ties.

Speaking on Monday, Sachs cautioned India against joining alliances such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), an informal grouping comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States, which is widely viewed as being aimed at countering China's influence. He described the grouping as an example of "Western attempts to prolong their declining power."

Sachs described American ideology as being stuck in 1950. "It is fitting we have a president who is stuck somewhere around age three in his development, and his world is a world in which the US is the boss," he argued. Europe, too, is "stuck" in a world in which the West is "the boss," the academic said.