The author says the UN at 80 is structurally stuck in 1945: the Security Council is veto-paralyzed, great-power rivalry is eroding the rules-based order, and the Global South is under-represented despite its population and economic weight.

BRICS is framed as a voice for that South—not an anti-Western replacement for the UN—because it includes two P5 members (China, Russia) plus India, Brazil, and others who can push Security Council and IMF/World Bank reform.

India is urged to use the New Delhi summit as a bridge: back UN reform and Global South influence, and float a modest BRICS “peace contact group” (humanitarian corridors, food and energy routes, de-escalation) so BRICS gives the UN political energy rather than becoming another bloc.

The United Nations was born 80 years ago from the ashes of the Second World War with a historic promise: that sovereign nations could come together to prevent another global catastrophe and build a rules-based international order. Eight decades later, however, the world has changed dramatically while the structure of the UN has changed very little.

Wars continue, geopolitical rivalries are intensifying, and economic sanctions and trade restrictions are increasingly being used as instruments of strategic competition. The UN Security Council, meanwhile, remains frequently paralysed by the veto. The problem is not that the world needs less multilateralism; it needs more representative and effective multilateralism.

The UN tasked with maintaining international peace is repeatedly failing to ensure world peace. UN Secretary-General António Guterres himself admitted this institutional failure during the “Summit of the Future” held during the 79th UN session in New York. He lamented the inability of the UN to stop wars and criticized the impunity enjoyed by nations violating international law. At the “Summit of the Future” attended by over 130 heads of state and government, criticism of the UN system was unprecedentedly direct. Some of the world leader described the UN as Paralyzed,UN faces a crisis threatening its legitimacy and moral authority, Urgent necessity of UN reforms, Outdated and Exclusionary, Incomplete and Unfair, Are you ready to close the UN?

This is why the 18th BRICS Summit in India assumes exceptional significance. BRICS is no longer merely an economic grouping. With its expanding membership and wider outreach, it has emerged as one of the most important platforms through which the Global South can articulate its aspirations and influence the emerging international order.

BRICS possesses enormous demographic, economic, political and strategic weight. Its members account for nearly half of the world’s population, around 30 percent of global economic output and a significant share of global trade. More importantly, BRICS includes China and Russia—two permanent members of the UN Security Council—alongside India, Brazil and other major voices of the developing world. This gives the grouping a unique opportunity to bridge the widening gap between the existing UN........

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