Archive · 12 Sep 2026
India Faces Impossible Task As BRICS Summit Confronts Internal Divisions
India is hosting a meeting of BRICS countries.
These countries represent a large share of the world’s people and economy.
However, they disagree about the war involving Iran.
Some members have serious disputes with Iran or with one another.
This makes it difficult for them to agree on a shared statement.
India is trying to find wording that all members can accept.
The author says BRICS can only achieve its economic goals if its members also maintain basic security and diplomatic stability.
The summit’s outcome may show whether BRICS can become more than a place for meetings and speeches.
India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit while members remain divided over the Iran war and other regional disputes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as the United States threatened sanctions against countries engaging with Iran.
India is seeking a joint declaration, but BRICS negotiators reportedly remain divided over language concerning the Iran conflict.
The United Arab Emirates has suspended trade and financial transactions with Iran, while Egypt and Ethiopia also bring regional disputes into the bloc.
The article argues that India must link BRICS’s economic ambitions to basic security and diplomatic stability if the grouping is to become more effective.
- Who
- India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the 11 BRICS members, including Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
- What
- India is trying to secure a joint BRICS declaration despite disagreements over the Iran war and wider regional tensions.
- When
- The summit begins Saturday; BRICS foreign ministers failed to agree on a joint statement in May, while negotiators were working through the night beforehand.
- Where
- The summit is being hosted in New Delhi, with the wider disputes centered on Iran and West Asia.
- Why
- A joint declaration is considered important to demonstrate BRICS unity and advance its goals of economic cooperation, alternative financial arrangements, and a more multipolar global order.
India’s Diplomatic Bridge
BRICS’s Internal Faultlines
India’s role
India’s Diplomatic Bridge
India is portrayed as uniquely positioned to mediate among members because it maintains strategic and historic ties with Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
BRICS’s Internal Faultlines
The conflicting interests of those members may make a compromise on the Iran war extremely difficult, limiting what India can achieve.
BRICS’s global potential
India’s Diplomatic Bridge
Supporters of the grouping’s ambitions see its economic and demographic scale as a foundation for a more multipolar order and alternative financial systems.
BRICS’s Internal Faultlines
The article argues that scale has little practical value without strategic coherence, consensus, and a shared understanding of security.
Joint declaration
India’s Diplomatic Bridge
Careful drafting, modeled partly on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s agreement, could allow members to endorse a common statement.
BRICS’s Internal Faultlines
Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia each have reasons to reject formulations on the conflict, and a summit-level failure could reinforce doubts about BRICS’s effectiveness.
- Summit
- The 18th BRICS Summit, hosted by India
- Membership scale
- The bloc represents about half the world’s population, 40% of global output, and more than a quarter of global trade, according to figures cited by Modi.
- Economic projection
- The International Monetary Fund expects BRICS to reach $45.19 trillion by 2031, or 28.5% of the global economy.
- Main obstacle
- Members reportedly disagree over the wording of a joint statement on the Iran war.
- Earlier setback
- BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi in May issued an Indian chair’s summary after failing to agree on a joint statement.
- Regional tensions
- The United Arab Emirates suspended all trade and financial transactions with Iran after Iranian missile strikes on its territory, according to the article.
- Diplomatic precedent
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation agreed on wording concerning the Iran war before the BRICS summit, although the United Arab Emirates was not part of that statement.