July 11 – All eyes are on the upcoming seventeenth BRICS Summit, set to happen in Brazil from July 6 to 7, amid rising inside contradictions that threaten to undermine the bloc’s unity and effectiveness.
The South China Morning Post not too long ago highlighted these tensions in an article titled “Questions loom at BRICS Rio summit about group’s effectiveness”, pointing to widening rifts inside the alliance.
One notable fracture emerged in April, when BRICS international ministers did not subject a joint communiqué, largely attributable to disagreements over calls to grant everlasting UN Security Council seats to Brazil, India, and South Africa. These divisions are anticipated to overshadow the summit proceedings, that are already marked by the absence of two key leaders: Chinese President Xi Jinping will skip the summit for the primary time, sending Premier Li Qiang in his place, whereas Russian President Vladimir Putin will seem through video, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attending in particular person.
The lack of consensus is deepening with the bloc’s latest growth. Egypt and Ethiopia, two of the most recent BRICS members, opposed a declaration in help of South Africa’s Security Council ambitions—a growth that underscores how growth could also be amplifying tensions fairly than easing them. Yet in a seeming contradiction, the identical international locations quickly joined BRICS nations in signing a powerful assertion condemning latest U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, one other new entrant, labelling them violations of worldwide regulation.
Diplomats accustomed to the preparations say the prospects for a unified entrance are unsure, with thorny points equivalent to commerce frameworks, a possible BRICS forex mechanism, and geopolitical alignment on the agenda.
Amid these divisions, India, a founding BRICS member, is rising as a shiny spot. According to the newest Morgan Stanley Global Investment Committee report titled “The India Opportunity”, the Indian financial system is projected to outpace all main international economies in 2025–26. India’s GDP is predicted to develop by 5.9% in 2025, accelerating to six.4% in 2026 (This fall/This fall).
This financial momentum positions India uniquely because it prepares to imagine the BRICS chairmanship in 2026. But it additionally raises a vital query: Can New Delhi translate its financial energy into diplomatic affect to information a divided BRICS towards renewed function and cooperation?
As the summit opens in Rio, this query could show central to the way forward for the bloc itself.
