Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Iran conflict is forcing BRICS into a position the bloc has long tried to avoid: choosing between competing geopolitical loyalties within its own ranks. What was once promoted primarily as an economic grouping of emerging powers is now confronting a far more difficult reality — whether it can function as a coherent political force during a major international crisis.
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That challenge is playing out in real time at the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, where officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and the bloc’s newly expanded membership have gathered for high-level talks. Among the new members are Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.
Officially, the meeting is focused on cooperation among Global South economies. In practice, however, it has become a diplomatic pressure test dominated by the escalating Iran conflict and the competing interests it has exposed within the bloc.
Iran Pushes BRICS Towards A Political Position
Tehran has arrived in New Delhi with a clear objective: securing a unified BRICS statement condemning the actions of the United States and Israel in the Gulf conflict. For Iran, the issue is not merely rhetorical. It is strategic.
Iran increasingly views BRICS as an alternative centre of global influence capable of challenging Western-led institutions and narratives. By obtaining support from the bloc, Tehran hopes to reduce diplomatic isolation and reinforce the image of a shifting global order in which Western powers no longer dominate international politics uncontested.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is expected to push that message strongly during closed-door discussions. Yet Iran’s expectations collide with a difficult reality: BRICS is no longer a unified grouping with broadly aligned interests. It is now a coalition containing multiple, and sometimes contradictory, geopolitical agendas.
The UAE-Iran Divide Inside BRICS
The most obvious internal contradiction lies in the Gulf itself.
While Iran is seeking a strong anti-Western and anti-Israel position from BRICS, fellow member the United Arab Emirates occupies a very different strategic space within the region. The presence of both countries inside the same bloc illustrates the widening gap between BRICS’ ambition for political coordination and the realities of regional rivalries.
This makes consensus extremely difficult. Any language perceived as strongly favouring one side risks alienating another member state. Diplomacy, in this environment, becomes an exercise in balancing incompatible priorities.
That challenge falls heavily on India, which currently chairs BRICS in 2026. New Delhi is attempting to project unity while simultaneously maintaining strategic relationships across competing geopolitical camps.
Indian officials reportedly still hope for a joint declaration by the end of the meeting. However, they have also acknowledged privately that drafting neutral language acceptable to all sides may prove exceptionally difficult.
Russia Sees Opportunity, China Maintains Distance
Russia, meanwhile, has approached the meeting from a different angle.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is attending in person, underscoring Moscow’s continued effort to present BRICS as a cornerstone of a multipolar global order. Since facing extensive Western sanctions, Russia has increasingly invested political energy into strengthening non-Western partnerships and alternative diplomatic platforms.
For Moscow, the New Delhi meeting offers another opportunity to deepen coordination with emerging economies and reinforce the perception that Western isolation efforts have failed.
China’s role, however, has attracted equal attention for different reasons.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi is not attending the meeting, officially because of scheduling conflicts linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. Instead, China is represented by its ambassador — a lower-profile presence that inevitably limits Beijing’s direct influence during negotiations.
China has maintained a carefully balanced public position on the Iran conflict. Beijing retains strong ties with Tehran while also preserving close economic and political relationships with Gulf Arab states. That balancing strategy has become central to Chinese diplomacy in the Middle East.
Yet the absence of top-level Chinese participation in New Delhi has weakened Beijing’s ability to actively shape consensus within the bloc at a particularly sensitive moment.
BRICS Expansion Brings New Contradictions
The broader problem facing BRICS is structural.
The bloc has expanded rapidly over recent years, bringing in countries with vastly different regional priorities, security relationships and economic dependencies. While expansion increased BRICS’ global visibility and demographic reach, it also multiplied the number of internal contradictions.
What began primarily as an economic coalition is increasingly attempting to act as a geopolitical platform. The Iran conflict is exposing just how difficult that transformation may be.
The challenge is not simply ideological. It is also economic.
Rising tensions in the Gulf continue to place pressure on global energy markets. For BRICS economies such as India, Egypt and Indonesia, prolonged instability translates directly into higher fuel prices, inflationary pressure and domestic economic strain.
Several member states have already introduced emergency measures including subsidies, strategic reserve releases and price controls to cushion the impact. But these are temporary responses to a larger vulnerability: dependence on stable Gulf energy flows.
India’s Delicate Balancing Act
India’s position inside this evolving landscape is particularly delicate.
New Delhi is attempting to position itself as a bridge between rival geopolitical camps — maintaining ties with Iran while deepening relations with Gulf economies and Western powers. It is also trying to reinforce its leadership role within BRICS without allowing the bloc to fracture publicly under its chairmanship.
Every diplomatic signal from India is therefore being interpreted simultaneously in Tehran, Washington, Moscow, Beijing and Gulf capitals.
That makes neutrality less a moral posture than a strategic calculation.
The larger question emerging from the New Delhi meeting is whether BRICS can genuinely evolve into a coordinated geopolitical counterweight to Western-led institutions, or whether it will remain primarily a forum for discussion among countries whose interests ultimately diverge too sharply for unified political action.
A Defining Moment For BRICS
The Iran conflict has revealed more than just policy disagreements. It has exposed a deeper structural reality inside BRICS: the bloc is expanding faster than its mechanisms for consensus can adapt.
As crises become more complex and members become more geopolitically diverse, maintaining unity becomes increasingly difficult.
The talks in New Delhi may still produce a joint declaration, even if heavily diluted and carefully worded. But regardless of the final language, the broader message is already clear.
BRICS today is no longer simply an economic coalition seeking alternatives to Western financial dominance. It is an increasingly political grouping attempting to navigate real geopolitical conflicts among its own members.
And the Iran crisis may become the clearest example yet of how difficult that transition truly is.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
