China: BRICS 2026: India played host to a crucial two-day conference of foreign ministers from BRICS on May 14-15, which comes ahead of the 18th summit of BRICS planned for September. Coincidentally, this meeting in the Indian capital is coming amid President Donald Trump’s state visit to China.
The agenda: Resilience in times of war
Whereas the theme of the event is said to be “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability,” with a focus on health, it is expected that the issue that will dominate this meeting is the ongoing war on Iran.
Indeed, since the start of the conflict, now in its 76th day, there have been tensions in the bloc. These were highlighted by the failure of the April summit, at which Iran and the UAE quarreled over the conflict and India attempted to mitigate criticism about Israeli actions in Gaza.
Who is present?
Ministers from the expanded bloc, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, and even the newest member Indonesia, are present at the conference.
- Russia: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
- Iran: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
- Indonesia: Foreign Minister Sugiono
- Brazil & South Africa: Mauro Vieira and Ronald Lamola
- China: Ambassador Xu Feihong represents China, as Foreign Minister Wang Yi stays in Beijing for the summit between Trump and Xi.
Strategic context: The parallelism between Trump and Xi
While the BRICS ministers are meeting in the Bharat Mandapam of New Delhi, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, would be having a bilateral discussion with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. According to analysts, Trump might put pressure on Xi, urging him to exert his influence over Iran so as to stop the ongoing naval dispute in the Gulf.
According to Rafael Loss of the European Council on Foreign Relations, “Xi could be persuaded to take a more vocal line vis-a-vis Iran.”
Economic situation: The energy crisis
The conference comes at a time when the world is witnessing a crisis caused by the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz since early March. Until now, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, which previously carried 20% of oil and LNG globally.
This blockade not only affects the major members of the bloc such as India and China, who rely heavily on Gulf oil, but also increases the cost of fuels in other BRICS member states including Brazil and South Africa.
What is BRICS?
BRICS was initially created in 2006 as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Later, South Africa joined the organization in 2010, turning BRIC into BRICS. As a coordination mechanism, BRICS helps emerging nations become more vocal in voicing the needs of developing countries, which are generally marginalized within the existing world order controlled by the West.
While expanding, many have predicted that reaching a consensus statement regarding the war in Iran will not be easy since the bloc finds it difficult to progress past condemning acts of sovereignty violation.
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