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India will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the BRICS countries on May 14-15 as a precursor to the 18th BRICS summit, which New Delhi will host in September. The meeting, which will begin on Thursday morning, coincides with a three-day visit by US President Donald Trump to Beijing for meetings. state visit and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Here’s more about the foreign minister’s meeting, who’s coming and why it’s needed.
What is BRICS?
BRICS is a group of developing countries that seek to coordinate security and economic policies to meet the interests of the Global South in international organizations and in areas where the West has dominated economically and politically.
The acronym stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The organization was originally called BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China – when its foreign ministers first met in 2006, and when it held its first summit in 2009. It became BRICS when South Africa joined in 2010.
In 2023, BRICS an invitation to Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after these countries applied for membership. Saudi Arabia has not joined, but others have. A request was also made to Argentina, but it was he refused like the President Javier Mileyelected in December 2023, campaigned on a promise to strengthen relations with whites.
Indonesia joined the group in January 2025, after its membership was approved at the 2023 conference in Johannesburg.
The group sets priorities and holds discussions at an annual meeting, which members take turns hosting. Last year, Brazil hosted the BRICS summit and, in 2024, Russia hosted the annual summit. This year, it is India’s turn to host.
This week’s meeting in New Delhi will bring together the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries, who are expected to discuss economic cooperation and coordinate their views on major international issues.
Where is the BRICS foreign ministers meeting and where is it?
The BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting, held in preparation for the 18th BRICS summit in September, will be held on Thursday, May 14, and Friday, May 15, in New Delhi, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday.
On Thursday, foreign ministers are expected to arrive at 10:00am (04:30 GMT), and sessions are expected to take place throughout the day, ending with dinner at 7pm (01:30 GMT).
On Friday, one session is scheduled to take place, starting at 10:00am (04:30 GMT).
All but one of the meetings will be held at the Bharat Mandapam, an auditorium and conference center located near the Supreme Court of India.
On Thursday at 1pm (07:30 GMT), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join a joint meeting with visiting leaders at Seva Teerth, the new administrative center that serves as the headquarters of the Prime Minister’s office.
Who is attending the meeting?
Ministers of foreign countries within and outside the BRICS group are expected to attend the meeting.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the meeting. South Africa’s Ronald Lamola and Brazil’s Mauro Vieira are both in it.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will not attend because of Trump’s visit to Beijing. Instead, China will be represented by Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong, Indian media said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in New Delhi to participate. Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono also arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday.
It is unclear who will represent the UAE at the BRICS summit, even as the US-Israel war on Iran increases tensions between the UAE and Iran.
What’s on the agenda?
The theme of the conference is “Strength Building, Innovation, Cooperation and Stability”, according to the Ministry of External Affairs of India. This will focus on “public and general health, with an emphasis on cooperation on health issues, including communicable and non-communicable diseases”, it added.
However, the ongoing war in Iran should prevail, and the talks will set the agenda for the annual BRICS meeting in September, observers say.
“The Iran war is likely to cast a shadow over the BRICS summit and the Trump-Xi summit,” Rafael Loss, adviser on security, defense and technology at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Al Jazeera.
The war in Iran entered its 76th day on Thursday, with diplomatic efforts to end the conflict at risk.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that, in addition to participating in the BRICS summit, Araghchi will hold separate meetings with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and other officials who will attend the summit.
In April this year, India hosted the Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys for the Middle East and North Africa to BRICS in New Delhi. The meeting ended without a joint statement after Iran and the UAE clashed over how to respond to the US-Israel war on Iran, and the UAE also sees itself as a victim of Iran.
Since then, tensions between Iran and the UAE have only increased, with Tehran’s military messages targeting mainly the UAE.
Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza is another point of concern within the bloc. At the April meeting, India – recently an ally of Israel – tried to reduce opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which led to a failure within the bloc to reach an agreement on the issue.
“The meeting in India takes place at a critical time when the BRICS alliance is facing challenges due to India’s close relationship with the US and Israel, as well as the conflict in West Asia between Iran and the UAE,” Michael Dunford, retired professor at the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, told Al Jazeera.
What about the meeting between Trump and Xi at the same time?
Trump arrived in China on Wednesday evening and, after a formal welcome, headed to his hotel. On Thursday, he will hold talks with the Chinese president, and will join President Xi for lunch on Friday, before flying back to the US.
“The result of the possibility of Trump’s visit to China and the meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in India is that Wang Yi will not attend, China will be represented by its ambassador to India Xu Feihong,” said Dunford.
ECFR’s Rafael Loss predicted that Trump will try to pressure Xi into pressuring Iran to comply with US demands to end the military conflict in the Gulf and open the Strait of Hormuz.
In the past, he said, China avoided participating in international conflict management efforts and instead tried to “step in” to seal the deal, such as the 2023 Iran-Saudi Arabia permanent deal, which has collapsed.
“But if the price is right, and because of Trump’s long tenure and neglect of traditional U.S. allies, Xi may be persuaded to take a softer line with Iran,” Loss said. “Taiwan could have a big problem.”
How important is this meeting?
This meeting of foreign ministers also comes amid the power crisis caused by the shutdown of Hormuz River during the US-Israel war on Iran.
Since early March, Iran has blocked shipments through the strait, the narrow channel that connects Gulf oil producers to the open sea and through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas (LNG) was shipped before the war. Iran has allowed ships from selected countries to pass through, but they must negotiate with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran’s attacks on US assets and oil and gas facilities in the Gulf in the first weeks of the war have also affected the energy sector.
In April, the US announced a naval blockade on ships entering or leaving Iranian ports, further disrupting oil and gas supplies around the world.
This has directly affected several BRICS members. Both India and China are heavily dependent on Gulf oil shipped through the canal. Saudi Arabia and the UAE both export oil by road. Although Brazil, Egypt and South Africa are not directly dependent on the oil that flows through the river, they are affected by rising oil prices.
“It is unlikely that the BRICS meeting will produce a unified statement that goes beyond the criticism of international sovereignty as BRICS has chosen in the past, including Russia’s war against Ukraine,” ECFR’s Loss said.
