May 17, 2026 11:19 am IST

Opinion | Biggest Takeaway From BRICS Meet? Nobody Knows What It Is Anymore

Iran and the UAE's competing calculations just lay bare the limitations of the grouping.

Harsh V Pant Harsh V Pant Columnist

Harsh V Pant Columnist

The 2026 BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi exposed the growing internal contradictions of an expanded BRICS at a moment of acute geopolitical instability. Convened under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability", the meeting was intended to consolidate momentum ahead of the BRICS Leaders' Summit scheduled for September 2026. Instead, the escalating US-Israel confrontation with Iran transformed the gathering into a revealing display of the strategic fissures increasingly shaping the bloc.

The clearest indication of these divisions was the inability of BRICS foreign ministers to agree on a full joint statement. In its place emerged a Chair's Statement and outcome document that reflected consensus on broad developmental priorities while carefully sidestepping irreconcilable disagreements over the Middle East crisis. The absence of a unified declaration was not merely procedural; it underscored the widening divergence in how BRICS members interpret security, sovereignty, regional order, and relations with the West. 

The Iran-UAE Showdown

The emphasis on protecting maritime commerce and energy routes, especially through the Strait of Hormuz, revealed underlying anxieties among member states whose economic interests are directly threatened by regional escalation.At the centre of the discord stood Iran and the UAE, whose competing regional calculations brought into sharp focus the limitations of BRICS cohesion. Iran sought to use the platform to rally political backing against the United States and Israel, framing the........

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