BRICS Summit: Leaders Call for a New World Order but Fail to Agree on Its Model
World
The BRICS summit in India highlighted a shared desire among its members to reshape the existing world order, but failed to produce a common vision of what should replace it. Russia, China, India, Iran and other members have different interests and varying relationships with the United States and Western countries.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said BRICS countries should increasingly act not as participants in a system created by others, but as states that help shape the rules themselves. Russian President Vladimir Putin backed the idea of shifting the center of influence toward the Global South and East and criticized attempts to contain growing competitors.
At the same time, BRICS is not becoming a unified anti-Western bloc. Modi stressed that the grouping is “not directed against anyone.” India continues to maintain relations with states that have difficult relations with one another. Former Indian ambassador Anil Trigunayat said New Delhi was promoting the idea of “strategic autonomy in an era of wars.”
The divisions were also reflected in the final declaration. Members called for restraint in the Middle East and condemned attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities without assigning responsibility to specific parties. Russia’s war against Ukraine was not mentioned. BRICS also condemned unilateral sanctions and expressed concern over “indiscriminate tariff increases” without directly naming the United States.
The summit also provided a venue for meetings that would have been difficult to imagine only months ago. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held talks with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India for the first time in seven years and met Modi. The leaders agreed to strengthen business ties, transport connectivity and efforts to remove obstacles to mutual trade.
The summit showed that BRICS can bring states with competing interests together for dialogue and to explore alternatives to institutions traditionally dominated by the West. Yet the question of what a new world order should look like and how it should be built remains unresolved.
At the same time, BRICS is not becoming a unified anti-Western bloc. Modi stressed that the grouping is “not directed against anyone.” India continues to maintain relations with states that have difficult relations with one another. Former Indian ambassador Anil Trigunayat said New Delhi was promoting the idea of “strategic autonomy in an era of wars.”
The divisions were also reflected in the final declaration. Members called for restraint in the Middle East and condemned attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities without assigning responsibility to specific parties. Russia’s war against Ukraine was not mentioned. BRICS also condemned unilateral sanctions and expressed concern over “indiscriminate tariff increases” without directly naming the United States.
The summit also provided a venue for meetings that would have been difficult to imagine only months ago. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held talks with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India for the first time in seven years and met Modi. The leaders agreed to strengthen business ties, transport connectivity and efforts to remove obstacles to mutual trade.
The summit showed that BRICS can bring states with competing interests together for dialogue and to explore alternatives to institutions traditionally dominated by the West. Yet the question of what a new world order should look like and how it should be built remains unresolved.
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