Leaders of the BRICS group met in New Delhi on September 12 for a two-day summit and adopted a joint declaration that called for calm in the Middle East and pressed for the free movement of global trade. The gathering brought together the heads of an expanded bloc that now counts 11 members and stretches across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the talks, which drew Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, along with leaders from South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. The visit marked Xi’s first trip to India in seven years, a sign of cautious warming between the two neighbors even as they compete for influence across the region.
On the Middle East, the declaration urged what it described as maximum restraint and voiced firm opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians and to Israeli operations in Gaza. The document called for full United Nations membership for Palestine and backed the continued work of UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees. The language reflected a broad, if general, agreement among members on the humanitarian stakes of the conflict.
The economic sections of the statement defended open supply chains and steady trade flows, and they registered opposition to unilateral tariffs. Members also pledged to expand payment systems that operate outside Western financial networks and to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence. The trade language landed against a backdrop of US tariffs aimed at several member nations and repeated criticism from President Donald Trump, who has described the bloc as anti-American.
Beneath the unified messaging, the summit exposed real divisions. Iran and the United Arab Emirates, both members, sit on opposing sides of the US and Israeli conflict with Tehran, and an earlier meeting of foreign ministers produced no joint statement on that war. Xi told the summit that the fighting in the Middle East did not serve the common interests of the international community, a measured line that showed how far the group remains from speaking with one voice on the region’s crises.
