Putin meets Dilma as BRICS foreign ministers gather amid Middle East tensions

Vladimir Putin sat down with Dilma Rousseff at the Kremlin on Wednesday to discuss the machinery of BRICS—the bloc of emerging economies that has grown from an informal club into a genuine geopolitical force. Rousseff, who once led Brazil, now runs the New Development Bank, the financial institution the five founding members created in 2015 to offer an alternative to Western-dominated lending. She was not alone in the room. Roman Serov, the bank's vice president, was there. So were Maxim Oreshkin from Putin's office and Anton Siluanov, Russia's finance minister. The meeting was a small ceremony of alignment, a chance for Moscow to coordinate before the real test began.

That test arrives Thursday in New Delhi, where the foreign ministers of BRICS will gather to do something that has become increasingly difficult: agree on anything. The bloc started in 2009 as Russia's idea—a platform for countries tired of American dominance to speak with one voice. For years it was just five: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. But it has swollen. Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates have all joined. Ten nations now, each with its own interests, its own enemies, its own survival to think about.

The problem is immediate and acute. Iran has asked India, which holds the BRICS presidency this year, to use the bloc to condemn American and Israeli actions in the Middle East. But the UAE and Saudi Arabia—both now BRICS members—are on the opposite side of that conflict. They have reportedly launched military strikes against Iran in retaliation for Iranian attacks. The war that began on February 28 has divided the bloc along lines that no diplomatic formula can easily erase. Energy prices have spiked across the region. India itself has had to introduce emergency measures to shield its economy and its people from the shock.

India's foreign ministry spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, acknowledged the reality in March: some BRICS members are directly involved in the fighting, which makes building consensus "difficult." Yet India is hoping. Officials told Reuters they believe a joint statement is still possible after these meetings. Manjeev Singh Puri, a former Indian diplomat, offered a measured optimism. "It's good that the foreign ministers of all BRICS countries except China are arriving," he said. China will send its ambassador instead—Wang Yi, the foreign minister, cannot travel because Donald Trump is visiting Beijing this week. "The fact that they're meeting is positive," Puri continued, "and we hope it leads to a way forward."

But the arithmetic is grim. China has chosen nominal neutrality, bound as it is to both Iran and the Arab states. Russia, under sanctions and isolated from the West, has its own reasons to align with Iran. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have their own security calculations. India, caught in the middle, must somehow forge language that all ten can sign. The energy crisis is real. The divisions are real. The hope, fragile as it is, rests on the simple fact that they are showing up to talk at all.