BRICS nations urge ‘restraint’ in Middle East, smooth flow of global trade

The BRICS group of nations unanimously adopted a joint declaration at its summit in New Delhi, calling for calm in the Middle East and stressing the need to work together to keep global trade, supply chains and energy flowing smoothly. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting the two-day meeting, with China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian among the leaders attending.

The declaration voiced deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions across the Middle East, calling for maximum restraint and warning against deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities in particular. It also reiterated the bloc’s position on Palestine, expressing firm opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians and any change to the geography or demography of the occupied territories, while calling for an end to Israeli violence in Gaza and full UN membership for Palestine.

What to watch now is whether the 11-member bloc — which takes the presidency at a difficult moment, with wars in the Middle East and Ukraine disrupting energy and shipping, tariffs pressing on members, and divisions over how to respond — turns its declaration into concrete action, and whether Xi’s first visit to India in seven years marks a genuine thaw between the two Asian powers.