West Asia on boil, negotiators try to bridge divide within BRICS

With the war in West Asia flaring up following the exchange of strikes between the US and Iran, the BRICS Sherpas, the most senior negotiators from the 11 member countries of the grouping, are burning the midnight oil to try and hammer out a joint declaration for the New Delhi summit of the leaders on September 12-13.

The key point of discord, it is learnt, is the formulation over the war in West Asia given that Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are expected to be at the summit table.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attendance has been confirmed, officials are also preparing for the participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is not going to be at this gathering since he attended the AI summit in New Delhi in February this year, and will send a top government representative.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral meetings with Putin and Pezeshkian on Friday have been confirmed by officials. With the UAE and Iran, new members of the BRICS since 2024, part of the negotiations, Indian officials, along with the Russians, Brazilians and Egyptians, are working to bridge the gap between the warring parties.

Ever since the start of the war on February 28 when the US and Israel attacked Iran, Tehran has targeted US bases in the Gulf region including in the UAE. This has had the Emiratis and the Iranians at loggerheads over the last six months.

Sources told The Indian Express that Indian officials are trying to hold separate meetings with officials of the UAE and Iran, and bring them on the same page for the Delhi declaration.

“We would like to have a BRICS’ Delhi declaration, which is a consensus document, in all the paragraphs. Efforts are underway to achieve that outcome. We are optimistic we can accomplish that,” a senior Indian official said.

Among the outcomes expected during the summit will be smart grids and energy storage, urban infrastructure and MSME cooperation portal. Officials said that this year’s BRICS will be very different from the past summits India hosted: the 2012 summit took place in a luxury hotel in Delhi, the 2016 summit took place in a hotel in Goa, and the 2021 summit took place virtually because of the Covid pandemic.

This is also India’s turn to host the expanded BRICS grouping. Originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, it expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with Indonesia joining in 2025.

Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam became BRICS partner countries last year. The BRICS has emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of global trade.