The BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting opened on Thursday in the Indian capital New Delhi, but the Iran war is likely to overshadow the two-day meeting, which coincides with US President Donald Trump’s state visit to China.
The meeting will be held ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit to be held in New Delhi in September.
Find out more about the foreign ministers’ meeting, who will be attending it and why it’s important.
What are BRICS?
BRICS is a group of major emerging economies seeking to align their security and economic policies around the demands of the Global South within international institutions and issues that have traditionally been economically and politically dominated by Western countries.
This acronym stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The organization was called BRICs in its earlier form with Brazil, Russia, India, and China when it began foreign ministers in 2006 and held its first summit in 2009, before becoming BRICS in 2010 with the addition of South Africa.
In 2023, BRICS expanded its invitation to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates after these countries applied for membership. Saudi Arabia is not yet officially a member, but other countries are. An invitation was also extended to Argentina, but the invitation was turned down because President Javier Millay, who will be elected in December 2023, campaigned on a promise to strengthen ties with Western countries.
Indonesia joined the group in January 2025 after membership was approved during the 2023 summit in Johannesburg.
This group sets priorities and discusses them at annual summits hosted by rotating members. Last year Brazil hosted the BRICS conference, and in 2024 Russia will host the annual conference. India will be the host country this year.
A meeting in New Delhi this week is expected to bring together foreign ministers from BRICS countries to discuss economic cooperation and coordinate positions on key global issues.
When and where will the BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting be held?
India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced on Tuesday that the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, to be held in preparation for the 18th BRICS Summit in September, will be held in New Delhi on Thursday, May 14th and Friday, May 15th.
On Thursday, foreign ministers will arrive at 10am (4:30 GMT) and the meeting will last all day, ending with dinner at 7pm (13:30 GMT).
One session will be held on Friday at 10am (4:30 GMT).
All but one of the conferences will be held at the Bharat Mandapam, an exhibition hall and convention center near the Supreme Court of India.
On Thursday at 1pm (7:30 GMT), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the visiting leaders in a conference call from Seva Teeth, the new administrative complex that will serve as the official headquarters of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Who is attending the meeting?
Foreign ministers from both inside and outside the BRICS group are scheduled to attend the meeting.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the meeting. South Africa’s Ronald Lamola and Brazil’s Mauro Vieira will also be in attendance.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will not be attending because of President Trump’s visit to Beijing. Indian media reported that China’s ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, will represent him instead.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in New Delhi to participate. Indonesian Minister Sugi Ono also arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday.
It is unclear who will represent the UAE at the BRICS conference, despite tensions between the UAE and Iran worsening due to the US-Israel war against Iran.
What is the topic?
According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the theme of the conference is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” It added that this will focus on “human-centered, holistic health care with an emphasis on collaboration on pressing health challenges, including communicable and non-communicable diseases.”
But the ongoing war against Iran is likely to prevail, according to officials, and discussions will likely set the agenda for the annual BRICS summit in September.
“The Iran war is likely to cast a shadow over both the BRICS summit and the Trump-Xi talks,” Rafael Ross, a policy researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Al Jazeera.
The war against Iran entered its 76th day on Thursday, putting diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in jeopardy.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Aragushi will participate in the main BRICS meeting and will also hold separate talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and other officials attending the meeting.
In April this year, India hosted a meeting of BRICS Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys for the Middle East and North Africa in New Delhi. The gathering ended without a joint statement, as Iran and the UAE clashed over the response to the US-Israel war against Iran, with the UAE also seeing itself as a victim of Iranian aggression.
Since then, tensions between Iran and the UAE have only increased, with Tehran’s war messages increasingly targeting the UAE.
Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip is another stress point within the Strip. The April meeting failed to reach a regional agreement on the issue as India, a recent ally of Israel, sought to soften criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Michael Dunford, professor emeritus at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, told Al Jazeera: “The meeting in India comes at a difficult time when BRICS unity is facing challenges due to India’s close ties with the US and Israel, and the conflict between Iran and the UAE in West Asia.”
What would happen if President Trump met with President Xi at the same time?
President Trump arrived in China on Wednesday night and, after receiving a ceremonial welcome, went straight to his hotel. He will hold bilateral talks with the Chinese president on Thursday, participate in a working lunch with President Xi on Friday, and then return to the United States.
“As a result of President Trump’s visit to China and the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Summit in India, Wang Yi will not be attending, and the Chinese side will be represented by Indian Ambassador Xu Feihong,” Dunford said.
ECFR’s Rafael Ross predicted that Trump would likely try to persuade Xi to put pressure on Iran to meet U.S. demands to resolve the maritime standoff in the Gulf and open the Strait of Hormuz.
He said that in the past China had avoided engaging in long-term international conflict management efforts and instead tried to “swoop in” to strike final-stage agreements, such as the 2023 Iran-Saudi normalization deal, which has since collapsed.
“But if the price is right, President Trump’s short-termism and disregard for traditional U.S. allies could persuade President Xi to take a tougher stance on Iran,” Ross said. “Taiwan may end up bearing the brunt.”
How important is this meeting?
The foreign ministers’ meeting was held amid the energy crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Israel war against Iran.
Iran has restricted shipping through the strait since early March. The strait is a narrow waterway that connects Gulf oil-producing countries to the open ocean, and before the war, 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were transported through the strait. Iran allows ships from some countries to pass through, but transit negotiations are required with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Iranian attacks on U.S. assets and oil and gas facilities in the Gulf in the early weeks of the war also affected energy supplies.
In April, the United States announced a naval blockade of ships entering and leaving Iranian ports, adding further disruption to global oil and gas supplies.
This had a direct impact on several BRICS countries. India and China rely heavily on Gulf oil shipped through the strait. Saudi Arabia and the UAE transport oil through the strait. Although Brazil, Egypt and South Africa are not directly dependent on oil passing through the Strait, they have been affected by rapidly rising fuel prices.
“The BRICS summit is unlikely to produce a consensus statement that goes beyond condemning attacks on national sovereignty in general terms, as the BRICS have so far chosen, including Russia’s war against Ukraine,” ECFR’s Ross said.
