Xi Gets Red-Carpet Welcome at BRICS Summit in India — SkimNews
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- Xi Jinping arrived in India for the BRICS summit, his first visit in seven years, greeted by an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers — the biggest step toward reconciliation since the 2020 Himalayan border clash that killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
- Narendra Modi hosted the two-day gathering and welcomed Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian alongside Xi; on Saturday all 11 members unanimously agreed on the 'New Delhi declaration' calling for 'maximum restraint' in the Middle East, deliberately worded to avoid naming member states actively involved in conflicts.
- BRICS has expanded from its original five members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, now accounting for half the global population — yet internal fractures persist, with Iran bombing Saudi Arabia and the UAE earlier this year and foreign ministers failing to agree on a joint statement at their May meeting.
- China is pushing to expand BRICS as a counterweight to US leadership under Trump, whose tariff wars and retreat from multilateral institutions have cost America international credibility, while India sees the bloc as a bridge between the West and developing world — Modi opened talks declaring BRICS was 'not against anyone.'
- Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, said India's 'strategic hedging' position has grown harder to maintain in a forum whose membership includes countries with 'more overtly anti-western agendas' like China, Russia, and Iran, plus Brazil and South Africa, which have both had high-profile diplomatic disputes with Washington.
Why it matters: India is trying to steer an 11-nation bloc that includes overtly anti-Western members like China, Russia, and Iran — a contradiction Chatham House says has grown harder to manage under Trump. The 'New Delhi declaration's' careful avoidance of naming any member state involved in Middle East conflicts shows how thin the consensus still is, even as BRICS now accounts for half the global population and formally rivals the G7.
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