West Asia is testing BRICS unity before leaders even enter the summit room

BRICS negotiators are working to narrow differences over the West Asia crisis ahead of the New Delhi summit. The challenge illustrates a broader consequence of the group's expansion: BRICS now represents a wider range of regional interests, strategic partnerships and security priorities, making consensus both more valuable and harder to achieve.

India's role as host gives the diplomacy added weight. New Delhi must protect the group's relevance without allowing declarations to become so diluted that they lose meaning. It also has to manage its own relationships across West Asia, including with Gulf states, Israel and Iran.

For UPSC, BRICS should be read as more than an economic acronym. It is an example of minilateral and plurilateral diplomacy in a changing international order, where emerging powers seek greater voice but do not necessarily share a common worldview on every crisis.