Practically per week into the United States-Israel warfare on Iran and the BRICS bloc, a multi-country alliance that features Tehran, has not reacted in any type to the battle.
To analysts and political observers, that appears out of character. When the 12-day warfare between Israel and Iran broke out in June final yr, the bloc, which Brazil then chaired, was fast to state that US-Israeli joint assaults on Iran have been a “violation of worldwide legislation”.
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Nonetheless, for the reason that chairmanship of BRICS shifted to India in December 2025, New Delhi’s personal pursuits look like overriding the alliance’s targets, critics say, as India indicators closer ties with Israel and the US.
The 11-member BRICS grouping was shaped as an financial alliance in 2009 and is broadly considered a “International South” various to the unique Group of Seven (G7) alliance of industrialised economies.
US President Donald Trump as soon as accused its members of being “anti-American”, though BRICS has mentioned it doesn’t see itself as competing with or countering some other teams.
Lately, the organisation’s mandate has broadened to incorporate safety points, with members conducting joint navy drills – most lately hosted by South Africa in January this yr, when India opted out.
BRICS is called after the primary letters of its founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Since 2024, BRICS has expanded to incorporate Indonesia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Right here’s what we find out about how India’s pursuits might have come into battle with these of different BRICS nations:
How have BRICS nations responded to the US-Israel warfare on Iran?
The organisation itself, beneath Indian management in 2026, has not commented immediately in regards to the US-Israeli Operation Epic Fury in Iran, which has seen a number of missile and drone assaults throughout the nation, killing greater than 1,230 individuals in its first six days.
Nonetheless, individually, three of its 5 founding members have issued statements commiserating with Iranians mourning family members and denouncing violations of worldwide legislation.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose administration is embroiled in a dispute of its personal with the US over the Trump-alleged, however debunked, “genocide” of white South Africans, voiced issues in regards to the battle on Wednesday and warned that the combating might transcend the Center East.
“We would like a ceasefire, we wish this insanity to return to an finish,” Ramaphosa advised reporters, three days after his African Nationwide Congress occasion first issued a press release “condemning” the US and Israel’s “anticipatory self-defence primarily based on assumption or conjecture”.
South Africa, Ramaphosa added on Wednesday, can also be able to play a mediator function to assist resolve the problem and finish the lack of lives. The nation got here in for heavy US criticism earlier in January when Iran was allowed to take part within the BRICS naval drills hosted by South Africa, amid experiences of massacres of Iranian protesters.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin equally criticised the joint US-Israel assaults and the killing of Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in strikes on Saturday, in a letter to President Masoud Pezeshkian. Moscow and Tehran have shut ties, with Russia offering weapons and weaponry to Iran. Nonetheless, Moscow has not indicated any willingness to intervene militarily to help Iran.
Talking at a information convention on Tuesday, Russia’s International Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned there was no proof that Tehran is creating nuclear weapons – a key issue for the US and Israel – and that the warfare might result in the very consequence the 2 allies claimed they needed to forestall: Nuclear proliferation throughout the area.
Because the bombs dropped on Iran final Saturday, Russia’s Ministry of International Affairs accused the US and Israel of “premeditated and unprovoked acts of armed aggression towards a sovereign and impartial UN member state”.
Moscow itself stands accused of aggression towards a sovereign nation, amid its fifth yr of warfare on Ukraine.
In the meantime, China’s International Minister Wang Yi advised Gideon Saar, his Israeli counterpart, over the cellphone on Tuesday that Iran had been attacked as negotiations between Washington and Tehran “made vital progress, together with addressing Israel’s safety issues”, China’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned in a press release.
Wang added that China “opposes any navy strikes launched by Israel and the US towards Iran”, in line with the International Ministry.
What has India mentioned?
Of the founding members, solely India has not outrightly condemned the US-Israel assaults on Iran. Underneath its chairmanship of BRICS, the organisation has additionally been unusually silent on the warfare.
On Tuesday, three days after the primary assaults hit Tehran, killing Khamenei and several other of Iran’s senior navy officers, New Delhi made cautious requires an “early finish to the battle” in a press release by the nation’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs.
“India strongly reiterates its name for dialogue and diplomacy. We share our voice clearly in favour of an early finish to the battle,” the ministry mentioned, including that the warfare risked regional stability and the security of hundreds of Indian nationals dwelling and dealing within the Gulf area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi additionally spoke to Gulf nations and criticised retaliatory assaults on their territories, with out mentioning Iran.
Critics, particularly from the Indian opposition Congress occasion, have referred to as out Modi’s lack of outright denunciation of the Israeli-US assaults and the killing of Khamenei, particularly in mild of Modi’s visit to Israel, throughout which he addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem, simply days earlier than the warfare started.
The timing of the go to gave the looks of “tacit approval” of the assaults on Iran, the occasion mentioned on Monday.
Is India shifting nearer to Israel?
Modi undertook a state go to to Israel on February 25 and 26, 2026. He met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is needed by the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) on suspicion of warfare crimes associated to Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
Addressing the Knesset, Modi affirmed that “India stands with Israel, firmly, with full conviction, on this second and past,” whilst Israel has come beneath hearth globally for the genocidal marketing campaign in Gaza and lethal assaults by Israeli forces and settlers within the occupied West Financial institution.
Modi and Netanyahu went on to signal a number of commerce agreements on defence and synthetic intelligence, areas by which they’ve lengthy collaborated. Israel additionally sends about 40 p.c of its arms exports to India.
In a publish on X, Modi wrote that the 2 nations had elevated “our time-tested partnership to a Particular Strategic Partnership” throughout his go to.
About the identical time, the specter of Israel-US assaults on Iran was looming. Modi might even have identified in regards to the assaults, one former Indian diplomat advised Indo-Pacific-focused The Diplomat journal.
The Modi authorities has not responded to this allegation.
Reuven Azar, Israeli ambassador to India, advised native publication The Indian Specific on Wednesday that the chance to launch the joint assaults on Iran got here “solely after Prime Minister Modi left”.
Has the US pressured India?
India has lengthy championed a stance of strategic autonomy, permitting it to commerce with Western nations whereas additionally deepening ties with nations seen within the West as pariah states, comparable to Russia. That’s a part of the rationale it was a founding BRICS member.
A tense standoff arose with the administration of US President Donald Trump over India’s continued buy of sanctioned Russian oil final yr. Trump imposed sweeping import levies of as much as 50 p.c on India in August 2025, partly as punishment for this. India, whose largest buying and selling companion is the US, described the extra tariffs as “unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable”.
The tariffs threatened to destabilise about 70 p.c of India’s exports to the US, the nation’s analysis council warned afterwards, urging fast commerce reforms. India majorly exports electronics, prescribed drugs, and jewelry to the US.
By February, the image had modified. Following talks, Trump announced an agreement with India that slashed tariffs to 18 p.c as he claimed that Delhi had agreed to cease shopping for Russian oil and to as an alternative purchase extra US oil and different merchandise.
“Massive due to President Trump on behalf of the 1.4 billion individuals of India for this excellent announcement,” PM Modi wrote on the X social platform in response.
Will India’s relations with Israel and the US have an effect on the BRICS alliance?
When President Trump first took workplace, he threatened BRICS nations with an extra 10 p.c tariff as a part of his commerce warfare.
Then, in July, he took goal on the group once more earlier than its annual summit, saying: “After I heard about this group from BRICS, six nations, mainly, I hit them very, very arduous. And in the event that they ever actually type in a significant means, it would finish in a short time.”
Whereas India has continued to take part in routine BRICS conferences in latest months, it has notably stayed away from safety points.
In January, when BRICS nations met in South Africa to carry navy drills, New Delhi was absent, though it was already the group chair on the time. India gave no explanation why. Brazil, which confronted US tariff issues of its personal, additionally selected to not take part, however was current as an observer.
Opting out for India was “about balancing ties with the US”, Harsh Pant, a geopolitical analyst on the New Delhi-based assume tank Observer Analysis Basis, advised Al Jazeera on the time.
Fellow BRICS member China has equally confronted a gruelling commerce warfare with the US, however has spoken up in help of Iran.
Some critics fault Beijing for in a roundabout way intervening within the warfare to help its ally. Nonetheless, Dong Wang, a professor of worldwide research at Peking College, mentioned these expectations misunderstand China’s place.
“China advocates mediation, not navy involvement,” he mentioned.
Evaluating Beijing’s response to Delhi’s, the professor mentioned India was selecting a “cautious, balanced posture emphasising de-escalation”.
However the differing responses from BRICS nations, he added, replicate a necessity for its members to return to a consensus whilst they maintain various ties and strategic priorities.
Such a consensus might be wanted if the group continues to face, and its existence is one thing Beijing takes critically, Wang mentioned.
“From China’s perspective, BRICS unity issues, and variations are regular inside a various multilateral framework,” he mentioned.
“Beijing continues to encourage BRICS to uphold its founding objective: Supporting multilateralism, peaceable settlement, and the collective voice of the International South.”
