New Delhi/Bhopal May 15, 2026. The two-day BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting concluded on Friday in New Delhi, serving as a precursor to the September 2026 BRICS Summit. The talks were dominated by the ongoing war in Iran, rising global fuel prices, and sharp internal divisions among member states. According to agency reports, the summit focused on reforming global governance, enhancing multilateral cooperation, and amplifying the voice of the Global South amid growing geopolitical tensions. The summit concluded in New Delhi at the Bharat Mandapam with a sweeping chair's statement covering AI leadership, climate resilience, and global governance. However, the summit notably ended without a joint declaration on the West Asia conflict due to deep geopolitical rifts

Key Takeaways from the Summit: As the world faces growing conflicts, economic uncertainty and diplomatic divisions, New Delhi turned into a major global conversation table during the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. The expanded grouping gathered at Bharat Mandapam under India’s 2026 chairship theme-“Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar chaired the discussions attended by representatives from 11 BRICS nations, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia, along with partner countries. The summit was not only about formal meetings. It also reflected the difficult global situation. Member countries came with sharply different views on the ongoing tensions in West Asia, especially around the US-Israel-Iran conflict. Diplomats described the discussions as sensitive but constructive. India tried to play the role of a balancing bridge, keeping dialogue open between competing sides while protecting the unity of the bloc.

Foreign ministers, including Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Abbas Araghchi, also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss regional tensions, economic cooperation and global security challenges. Economic concerns remained at the centre of the summit. Countries discussed ways to strengthen supply chains, improve energy security and reduce vulnerability to oil shocks, food crises and currency pressures. Talks also focused on alternative payment systems and reforms in global institutions, reflecting growing concerns among emerging economies over existing financial structures. Security issues featured prominently as well. BRICS members reiterated their opposition to terrorism and stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation at a time when geopolitical fault lines are widening across several regions.

Diplomatic observers believe the meeting helped prepare the strategic groundwork for the larger BRICS Leaders’ Summit scheduled later this year. For India, the gathering also became an opportunity to project itself as a nation capable of engaging with multiple power centres at the same time.

The theme of this meeting is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, according to India’s External Affairs Ministry. This will focus on “people-centric and holistic healthcare, with an emphasis on collaboration on pressing health challenges, including communicable and non-communicable diseases”, it added. The meeting in India occurs at a difficult time in which the cohesion of the BRICS confronts challenges due to the closer relations of India with the US and Israel, and the conflict in West Asia between Iran and the UAE, claimed sources.

According to reports, the war involving Iran entered its 76th day on Thursday, even as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict remained uncertain. Iran’s Tasnim news agency had reported that, as well as taking part in the main BRICS sessions, Araghchi will hold separate meetings with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and other officials attending the meeting. In April this year, India hosted a BRICS Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys for the Middle East and North Africa meeting in New Delhi. That gathering ended without a joint statement after Iran and the UAE clashed over how to address the US-Israel war on Iran, with the UAE also seeing itself as a victim of Iranian aggression.

Since early March, Iran has restricted shipping through the strait, a narrow waterway linking Gulf oil producers to the open ocean and through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped before the war. Iran has allowed passage by vessels from select countries, but they are required to negotiate transit with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian attacks on US assets and oil and gas facilities in the Gulf in the early weeks of the war have also affected energy supplies. In April, the US announced a naval blockade on ships entering or leaving Iranian ports, further adding to the disruption of global oil and gas supplies. This has had a direct impact on several BRICS members. India and China rely heavily on Gulf oil shipped through the strait. Saudi Arabia and the UAE ship oil through the strait. Brazil, Egypt and South Africa are not as directly reliant on the oil that moves through the strait, but they are impacted by rapidly rising fuel prices.

According to reports the growing conflict in West Asia cast a shadow over the summit. Differences among member countries became clearly visible during a sharp diplomatic exchange between Iran and the UAE. The disagreement reflected the widening geopolitical fault lines within the expanded BRICS grouping. Iran strongly pushed for a clear condemnation of the United States and Israel in the final outcome document. However, several member nations were not comfortable with taking a direct position because of their own strategic and regional interests. As divisions deepened, India, which is chairing BRICS in 2026, tried to maintain balance and avoid further confrontation. In the end, the grouping could not arrive at a common position on the Middle East crisis. Instead of a unanimous joint declaration, India issued a broader Chair’s Summary to reflect the discussions without exposing internal differences.