When Jim O’Neill, then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Administration, coined the time period BRIC in a 2001 analysis paper, he was referring to the collective potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China to affect the world economic system. By 2006, the 4 international locations began assembly informally, earlier than establishing BRIC in 2009 and increasing it to incorporate South Africa in 2010. There was optimism that BRICS would usher in an alternate pathway to international governance and emerge as a reputable voice of the World South.
By 2021, O’Neill was of the opinion that the 5 BRICS international locations had confirmed incapable of uniting as a significant international drive. The group’s incapacity to take a unified stand on main points was a principal motive for O’Neill’s conclusion. The ambiguous stance of BRICS and its present chair, India, concerning the continuing conflict in Iran serves to bolster that judgement. Even expanded, with 10 members drawn from throughout continents now, together with Iran, the group stays unable to develop substantive insurance policies on main international points. It’s thus shocking that BRICS has remained intact with out splitting or collapsing.
On April 14, Iranian Ambassador to India Mohammad Fathali mentioned that India may play an essential function because the chair of BRICS in fostering dialogue and regional stability. His feedback come forward of an upcoming BRICS assembly. Fathali’s assertion was an expression of hope and a nudge to India to make use of its good workplaces to impress upon the US and Israel to finish the conflict. New Delhi, to this point, has dilly-dallied in making any such strikes, though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remained in contact with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via periodic cellphone calls.
Tehran, which joined BRICS in January 2024, has referred to as upon the group to take a stronger stance on the conflict. However Iranian drone and missile assaults on the Gulf states on the whole and the UAE and Saudi Arabia, particularly, have created a curious dilemma for the group and its chair. The UAE, like Iran, has been a proper member of BRICS since early 2024. Saudi Arabia hasn’t joined the group, however attends its summits as a visitor or accomplice nation. Neither has responded to Iran’s assaults militarily. BRICS as a collective ought to be capable to shield the pursuits of the UAE and Saudi Arabia in addition to these of Iran. However doing so is a diplomatic impossibility at this juncture, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia being shut companions of the US.
Even with this advanced geopolitical backdrop, India’s personal place, also known as a “balancing act,” will be characterised as silence on the bigger strategic questions. Because the begin of the conflict, Indian management has spoken to the leaders of Iran, the U.S., Israel, and the Gulf international locations. However many of those conversations are about guaranteeing the protection of its personal residents within the Center Jap area. India’s shut relationship with Israel makes it a herculean job for New Delhi to pose as a impartial actor. Not surprisingly, New Delhi, even because the chair of BRICS, has accomplished little or no to place itself as a pacesetter of the bloc, or name for peace and cessation of violence affecting its member states.
This isn’t the primary time that BRICS has confronted challenges in reaching a unified place, notably when one among its members is concerned in a battle. As an illustration, in 2022 India distanced itself from China’s makes an attempt to rally help for Russia concerning the Ukraine conflict, leading to a watered-down BRICS assertion. India’s “multi-aligned” method was a strategic effort to keep up sturdy ties with Western international locations whereas additionally supporting its partnership with Russia, all of the whereas avoiding a direct endorsement of narratives dominated by China. The continued rivalry between India and China inside the group, together with India’s constant concern that Beijing is trying to dominate BRICS and use it as a device for its international coverage, has impinged on the effectiveness of the group.
Bilateral relationships or geopolitical alignments casting a shadow on a multilateral discussion board isn’t a uncommon incidence. As an illustration, the bilateral commerce conflict between the US and China has affected the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) discussion board. The identical dispute kind of crippled the World Commerce Group (WTO) Appellate Physique when the U.S. started blocking the appointment of judges, resulting in an deadlock in international commerce dispute settlements.
However, BRICS seems to be extra riddled with inside conflicts than most multilateral teams. The aim of making a unified BRICS forex stays elusive, as does the institution of a complete safety framework. Regardless of a shared ambition to reform international governance, BRICS has constantly did not problem a joint assertion concerning everlasting seats on the United Nations Safety Council (UNSC). There may be additionally a scarcity of consensus on whether or not BRICS ought to place itself as an anti-Western bloc — supported by Russia and China — or as a platform for reforming the present international guidelines, a perspective championed by India and Brazil.
Disagreements amongst members even led Brazil to dam Venezuela’s membership, regardless of help for Caracas from Russia. This could possibly be interpreted as an indication of a vibrant inside democratic course of inside the bloc. Nevertheless, for a company that has been energetic for 17 years, the shortage of clear course is extra indicative of its challenges and shortcomings. Actually, past creating the BRICS Financial institution (formally referred to as the New Growth Financial institution), the group’s achievements have been few.
New Delhi has positioned itself because the “bridge builder” — the first hyperlink between the established Western order (the World North) and the rising powers and growing international locations of the World South. Modi, addressing the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro in July 2025, mentioned that India would give a “new kind” to BRICS throughout its presidency. He proposed redefining BRICS as “Constructing Resilience and Innovation for Cooperation and Sustainability.” And he affirmed that India would advance BRICS with a give attention to “humanity first.”
Past such optics, not a lot has been achieved. Given its constraints, New Delhi is sure to find that the bloc’s efficiency has remained, as O’Neill’s revised evaluation outlined it — “dismal.” Nevertheless, as a chair, India has a novel alternative to offer course and construct synergy amongst member international locations to reshape the utility of this bloc within the current period of geopolitical contestation and turbulence.
