BRICS Leaders Converge on New Delhi as Global Tensions Test Bloc's Unity

Leaders of the BRICS nations will gather in New Delhi this weekend, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and mounting US-China tensions testing whether the expanded grouping can act in concert.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are among those expected at the summit, which India is hosting as it seeks to balance its ties with China and Russia against its growing partnerships with the United States and other Western powers.

Ahead of the meeting, former Indian diplomat Mahesh Sachdev described the international environment as both geopolitically turbulent and economically unsettled, pointing to the effects of wars and US tariff measures under President Donald Trump. Against that backdrop, and what he called the relative ineffectiveness of the United Nations structure, he said the gathering of ten major countries offered a fresh platform.

Sachdev also argued that the bloc's current momentum owes much to Trump, whose policies have disrupted established financial, trade and geopolitical arrangements and pushed countries to look for alternatives.

BRICS takes its name from the initials of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has since expanded to include 11 countries that together account for roughly half the world's population and a substantial share of its energy, resources and economic output.

That growth has also laid bare internal differences. Members want greater influence in the global order but frequently hold competing political, economic and foreign-policy interests, and the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine are expected to bring those divisions into focus.

Iran is part of the expanded bloc, while Russia remains one of its most influential members. China maintains close ties with both, even as India keeps up relations with Russia, Iran, the United States and Europe.

Sachdev said the New Delhi summit could serve as a historic opportunity to offer a platform between contending parties — Iran on one side and the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on the other in the dispute over Hormuz, and Russia against countries such as India that have pursued a peace mandate for the Ukraine-Russia war.

Billboards bearing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image and the slogan "Bridging perspectives, Building solutions" have gone up around the capital, while security personnel and the flags of BRICS and its member states were visible near the summit venue as preparations continued.