BRICS leaders have concluded two days of talks in New Delhi focused on inclusive global growth, after reaching a rare agreement calling for calm in the Middle East.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged cooperation within the bloc on Sunday, addressing leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The power of BRICS lies in our diversity and cooperation,” Modi said. “We have tried to push inclusive global growth.”
Putin said the bloc was working to create a “new, more just, multipolar world order”.
Xi warned that a “world without rules is like an intersection without traffic lights; chaos and disorder are inevitable”.
Modi has said the bloc represents 50 percent of the world’s population, 40 percent of global GDP and more than 25 percent of global trade.
“We may be rooted in different realities, but together we rise through cooperation and blossom for humanity,” he said.
Created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers, BRICS is seeking to expand its global role while addressing conflict, trade turbulence and energy security.
'Maximum restraint'
The Middle East conflict dominated Saturday’s opening talks, with leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, issuing a joint statement after intense diplomatic efforts by host India.
“We express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East/West Asia,” the statement said, calling for “maximum restraint”.
The agreement followed a failure by BRICS foreign ministers to reach a joint statement in New Delhi in May, when Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were divided over the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on February 28.
Modi maintains relations with both Iran and US ally Israel, while carefully managing India’s ties with Washington.
India has navigated the energy crisis caused by the US-Iran war partly by turning to Russia, despite Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine and pressure from Washington and other Western capitals.
'Advancing together'
Xi's participation in BRICS was also important because it was his first visit to neighbouring India since 2019, and the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the nuclear-armed rivals.
His visit came six years after a deadly military clash along the disputed Tibetan border between China and India, with ties gradually improving through restored flights, visas and high-level contacts.
"Although our two countries are different in many respects, they are fully capable of complementing each other's strengths, supporting one another, achieving mutual success and advancing together," Xi said as he met Modi, according to a video released by New Delhi.
The underlying territorial dispute remains unresolved, and both sides retain heavy military deployments along their roughly 3,500-kilometre (2,175-mile) high-altitude border.
In a statement released after the meeting, India's foreign ministry said that the two leaders had expressed their commitment to finding a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution to the boundary dispute.
Deep mistrust remains, with a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry complicating ties.
"Both sides should... work hand-in-hand to promote high-quality major financial cooperation, advocate an equal and sustainable global order, and foster an economic globalisation that is open and inclusive," Xi said.
Xi's visit was the target of protests by dozens of Tibetans in New Delhi, exiles like their Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing a Chinese crackdown in 1959.
