Finance12 September, 20263 min read
BRICS Leaders Call For Maximum Restraint As United States-Iran War Tests Unity In New Delhi
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
BRICS unanimously adopted the Delhi Declaration urging maximum restraint in the Middle East. Leaders bridged divisions to present a unified stance at the New Delhi summit.
New Delhi BRICS test
Leaders of the expanded BRICS bloc gathered in New Delhi on Friday for a two-day summit at Bharat Mandapam, with the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Iran igniting debate over the final joint declaration among members with conflicting strategic alignments. The summit is set to run on Saturday and Sunday, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, among other leaders. An Anadolu interview with Sourabh Gupta of the Institute for China-America Studies framed the timing as coming "at a time of belligerent actions as well as great flux in the international order and international life," as the US-Iran war tests BRICS unity.
Praveen Donthi, senior India analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the US-Iran war will "cast a shadow over" the summit and questioned whether the grouping could reach consensus given members holding sharply different positions. The summit’s broader agenda is also shaped by global trade disputes and issues such as artificial intelligence and blockchain payments, which Anadolu said were likely to feature prominently.
Declaration and restraint
BRICS unanimously adopted a joint declaration calling for calm in the Middle East and stressing the need to work together to maintain the smooth flow of global trade, supply chains and energy, as the summit launched on Saturday in New Delhi with Modi hosting the two-day meeting. The declaration voiced "deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions" across the Middle East, calling for "maximum restraint" and warning against deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and on nuclear facilities, in particular. Al Jazeera reported that the bloc reiterated its position on Palestine with "firm opposition" to the forced displacement of Palestinians and called for an end to Israeli violence in Gaza, support for the UNRWA and full United Nations membership for Palestine.
DW said Indian PM Modi announced the adoption of a joint declaration and that BRICS expressed concern over escalations in the Middle East, while also noting Modi would meet Xi on the sidelines of BRICS today. In parallel, the declaration also addressed expansion of non-Western cross-border payment channels, cooperation on artificial intelligence and opposition to unilateral sanctions and tariffs.
Finance, payments, and stakes
Beyond security language, the summit’s finance agenda centers on reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar, with Al Jazeera describing expansion of non-Western cross-border payment channels and opposition to unilateral sanctions and tariffs as subjects of the wide-ranging declaration. Al Jazeera also reported that the bloc’s finance ministers and central bank governors have objected to tariffs and non-tariff measures they say distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO rules, while the US has levied tariffs on several BRICS members under different pretexts. In a separate Reuters-framed account, Mahesh Sachdev, a retired Indian diplomat, said the goal should not be a direct confrontation with the dollar, adding, "It’s a challenge, but we’re not talking about frontal confrontations."
EnterpriseAM said India has floated the idea of linking digital currencies among BRICS central banks, while also noting that by May the New Development Bank had provided $42.9 billion in financings and supported about 139 projects. The stakes for BRICS are that its influence depends on whether members can agree on practical steps, as ABC News said its growing size has exposed divisions and that the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine are likely to highlight those divisions.