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What BRICS revealed about a shifting global order · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The leaders of BRICS nations posed for a photograph on
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the second and final day of the summit in the
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  Speaker 1: Indian capital, New Delhi. There was little in the way
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  Speaker 1: of concrete announcements. But the annual gathering has become a
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  Speaker 1: vehicle for non-Western countries to display a counterbalance to big
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: conventional power blocs. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the gathering
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  Speaker 1: was about the, quote, strengthening of international relations and genuine multilateralism.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't, however, mention Ukraine. Nor was it uttered by
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  Speaker 1: any other leader during the summit. Perhaps most interestingly was
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  Speaker 1: a meeting between Iranian President Massoud Pazeshkian and Abu Dhabi's
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  Speaker 1: Crown Prince Khalid bin Mohammed al-Nayan. It's the highest level
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  Speaker 1: meeting since the start of the Iran war, and despite
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  Speaker 1: the UAE's American base as being the target of Iranian missiles,
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  Speaker 1: Iran's president offered an olive branch to his neighbours.
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  Speaker 2: We have no problems with the UAE. We have no
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  Speaker 2: problem with any of the regional countries.
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  Speaker 3: We have problems with the.
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  Speaker 2: American bases located in these countries and from which they
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  Speaker 2: are attacking us. Emiratis We are not at war with
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  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have their own problems.
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  Speaker 1: Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country will establish a
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  Speaker 1: BRICS open AI source community as he looks to take
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  Speaker 1: the lead in this massive growth area. China will also
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  Speaker 1: play host to the next summit in 2027.
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  Speaker 3: Let's bring in Sandra Petersman, our DW head of geopolitics. Sandra,
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  Speaker 3: good to see you. Can you sum up the summit
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  Speaker 3: for us? What's been the concrete outcome?
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  Speaker 4: Well, that depends on how you define concrete. But first
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  Speaker 4: and foremost, we, of course, have to look at the
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  Speaker 4: joint declaration that came out of this two-day summit.
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  Speaker 5: It's a joint declaration.
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  Speaker 4: Of 144 paragraphs in 45 pages. And it comes with
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  Speaker 4: a mention of the Iran war. And that is noteworthy.
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  Speaker 4: because the BRICS nations, the 11 BRICS members, managed to
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  Speaker 4: express deep concern over the situation in Iran and also
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  Speaker 4: called for maximum restraint. Now, to bring this paragraph over
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  Speaker 4: the finishing line took a.
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  Speaker 5: Lot of careful diplomacy.
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  Speaker 4: And, of course, the paragraph comes without naming, shaming or
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  Speaker 4: blaming anyone. Yet it has to be seen as a
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  Speaker 4: diplomatic success. for Host India, and from all that we hear,
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  Speaker 4: it took a lot of night shifts and burning of
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  Speaker 4: midnight oil to get it into the declaration, which was
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  Speaker 4: hanging in the balance, but then it could be concluded
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  Speaker 4: and was adopted yesterday. Other than that, outcomes, well, there
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  Speaker 4: was a flurry of bilateral meetings, notably the one between
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  Speaker 4: Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and
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  Speaker 4: the one that our report also mentioned between the UAE
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  Speaker 4: and Iran, what comes out of these meetings in.
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  Speaker 5: Terms of deliverables, we will have to see.
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  Speaker 4: Because as one source had put it to me before
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  Speaker 4: the BRICS summit, a former UN diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, now
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  Speaker 4: a member of parliament here in India, he said that
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  Speaker 4: BRICS has always been very good at lofty declarations, but
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  Speaker 4: not so good at seeing them through.
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  Speaker 5: Hmm.
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  Speaker 3: Speaking of those meetings on the sidelines, as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 3: the one between the Iranian president and the Abu Dhabi
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  Speaker 3: crown prince. Tense, I must imagine, because of the war
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  Speaker 3: going on. But do we have a sense of possibly
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  Speaker 3: anything that happened there or might have come out of it?
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  Speaker 4: Well, the meeting itself, that it took place in this
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  Speaker 4: multilateral forum but in a bilateral stage behind closed doors...
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  Speaker 4: is of course a success in itself because talking obviously,
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  Speaker 4: diplomacy obviously is always better than to continue waging war.
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  Speaker 4: Iran's president seemingly offered an olive branch saying that one
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  Speaker 4: should leave the past behind and work towards the future.
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  Speaker 4: Interesting context in this case. It was China's President Xi
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  Speaker 4: who also offered a BRICS-mediating role to bring people to
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  Speaker 4: the negotiating table in solving the Iran war. But then again,
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  Speaker 4: what comes out of this in terms of tangibles and
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  Speaker 4: concrete steps, Tomi.
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  Speaker 5: That needs to be seen.
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  Speaker 4: Again, lots of words here in Delhi, and we need
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  Speaker 4: to see concrete action.
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  Speaker 5: And if it comes to that at this stage, it
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  Speaker 5: is unknown.
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  Speaker 3: Lots of words on that, but not much on Ukraine,
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  Speaker 3: the war there. Was it expected that this didn't feature?
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  Speaker 4: I personally didn't expect it in all honesty, because in
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  Speaker 4: the last declaration that came out of the BRICS summit
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  Speaker 4: in Rio in 2025, Ukraine was mentioned, although again, without naming,
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  Speaker 4: shaming and blaming anyone, that it was dropped completely. And
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  Speaker 4: this declaration must be seen as a victory for Vladimir Putin,
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  Speaker 4: who can use it Politically, it's also striking because other
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  Speaker 4: wars were mentioned, namely the one in Gaza that actually
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  Speaker 4: got a mention in four paragraphs emphasizing the rights of
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  Speaker 4: the Palestinian people, and also the Sudan war got a mention.
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  Speaker 5: And if you look at Ukraine as one.
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  Speaker 4: Of the big geopolitical fault lines of our times.
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  Speaker 5: That it got dropped completely, to me, that is a surprise.
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  Speaker 3: Now, this was Xi Jinping's first visit to India in
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  Speaker 3: seven years. Did the two countries make any progress in
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  Speaker 3: their relationship, especially considering their ongoing border disputes?
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  Speaker 4: I would say that it is the continuation of a
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  Speaker 4: careful thaw. If we look back, the relationship between India
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  Speaker 4: and China nearly came to a complete standstill after a
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  Speaker 4: violent border clash in 2020 at the disputed Himalayan border,
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  Speaker 4: which left soldiers on both sides dead. And then carefully
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  Speaker 4: ever since 2024, step by step, both sides are looking
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  Speaker 4: at a more normal relationship. Visas are issued against, flights
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  Speaker 4: have resumed. And this was indeed the first visit by
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  Speaker 4: China's President Xi Jinping.
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  Speaker 5: Here in Delhi in seven years. And both of them.
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  Speaker 4: Emphasize the need for a more multipolar world order, for
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  Speaker 4: a more just global order that takes into consideration the
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  Speaker 4: power of emerging economies and the global south at large,
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  Speaker 4: but how they look at it, that, of course, slightly differs,
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  Speaker 4: while China is often using a more anti-Western rhetoric, also
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  Speaker 4: pointing to its military might. India is much more careful
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  Speaker 4: in that sense, emphasising its strategic autonomy, wanting to be
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  Speaker 4: partners with multiple partners, being multi-aligned. And that, of course,
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  Speaker 4: also is one of the fault lines at BRICS at large.
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  Speaker 4: It is a non-Western platform, but there are voices in
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  Speaker 4: this group, especially China and Russia, that would perhaps like
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  Speaker 4: to see it taking a more anti-Western stance.
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  Speaker 3: And on that note, Donald Trump was obviously not there,
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  Speaker 3: but the declaration's language on things like tariffs, sanctions and
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  Speaker 3: this multipolar world order almost sounded like a response to Washington.
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  Speaker 3: So how much of the summit was really about the U.S.
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  Speaker 4: Well, Donald Trump was the elephant in the room, really.
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  Speaker 4: That's probably where all 11 very diverse BRICS members can
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  Speaker 4: more easily align because they do have shared grievances. They
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  Speaker 4: did condemn unilateral sanctions, unilateral punitive tariffs. that is hitting
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  Speaker 4: friends and foes alike.
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  Speaker 5: And certainly many of the BRICS members.
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  Speaker 4: Both share grievances when it comes to the dominance of
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  Speaker 4: the US dollar. And all of them advocate, as I said,
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  Speaker 4: for a more multipolar world. But then how to go
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  Speaker 4: about it, that's where they slightly differ. But they did
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  Speaker 4: make a point here that BRICS will look into building
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  Speaker 4: more resilient supply chains, will look at building a network
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  Speaker 4: to tackle critical minerals that they can't be weaponized. And
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  Speaker 4: they also said that they want to work within BRICS
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  Speaker 4: more to basically counter a rather erratic U.S.
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  Speaker 5: Policy.
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  Speaker 4: But again, it's a lot of words. It's a lot
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  Speaker 4: of shared grievances. But to turn that into a coherent
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  Speaker 4: foreign policy when you don't really align in your strategic aims,
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  Speaker 4: that is going to be difficult.
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  Speaker 3: DW's Sandra Petersman in Delhi. Thank you for speaking to us.