18JUL

BRICS adopts the text May could not agree

2 min read

13:17UTC

BRICS leaders adopted the New Delhi Declaration on Saturday 12 September, calling for maximum restraint over the Middle East conflict without naming any state, after negotiators worked to roughly 4am to bridge Iranian and Emirati positions.

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ConflictDeveloping

BRICS leaders adopted the New Delhi Declaration on Saturday 12 September 2026, expressing concern over the Middle East conflict and calling for maximum restraint without naming any state⁠¹. Negotiators worked to roughly 4am that morning to bridge Iranian and Emirati positions on the Gulf-conflict language⁠². Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the final wording a relief that many doubters had thought unlikely⁠³.

The bloc failed at this in the spring. The BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi on 14 and 15 May ended with no joint declaration at all, and India issued a Chair's Statement instead, citing differing views. The difference in September is a text, and the price of the text is that it identifies no belligerent.

Iran and the United Arab Emirates both sit in the room, one at war and one having cut every financial link to the other, which is the gap the drafters worked through the night to paper over. A declaration that only expresses concern and calls for restraint binds no member to anything in particular. It does put Iran's own signature under a call for maximum restraint, which sits awkwardly beside the charge Tehran's own foreign ministry levelled at Washington on 9 September, when it called the tanker strikes a war crime.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

BRICS is a bloc of large non-Western economies. It started with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has since taken in more members, including both Iran and the United Arab Emirates. At its summit in New Delhi, the leaders agreed a joint statement called the New Delhi Declaration. It expresses concern about the war and calls for restraint, but it does not say which country it means, so it does not blame anyone by name. Getting there took all night. Iran and the Emirates are on opposite sides of the Gulf conflict, and both had to sign. The way to get both signatures was to write a condemnation with nobody's name in it.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The bloc decides by consensus, and it admitted both parties to this argument in the same expansion. Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined on 1 January 2024, which gave each of them an effective veto over any text about the Gulf.

That rule has one exit. A declaration can be specific and fail, or general and pass, and the drafters spent the night converting the first into the second.

The host carried the cost of choosing. India convened the summit and needed a document, so the pressure to produce any agreed text fell on New Delhi rather than on either disputing member.

Escalation

Sideways. The text binds no member to an action and names no party, and the value of it to Tehran is a signature line rather than a commitment from anyone else.

What could happen next?

Meaning
Iran has signed a condemnation of unilateral war, which is the charge its own foreign ministry made against Washington four days earlier.
Immediate · Assessed
Consequence
A consensus bloc containing both belligerents can produce text about the Gulf, provided the text names nobody.
Medium term · Assessed
Risk
A declaration with no named party gives each signatory licence to tell its own public that the condemnation was aimed at someone else.
Immediate · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from India and Russia (includes Russia state media)

India

Russia

LeftRight

Primary parallel: The G20 leaders' declaration adopted in New Delhi in September 2023 dropped any condemnation of Russia and referred only to the war in Ukraine. India's last consensus text in this city survived the same way, by taking the name out.

Counter-parallel: The G20 declaration at Bali a year earlier did name the war and attributed the condemnation to most members, recording the split rather than papering over it. The New Delhi Declaration records no split at all, which leaves no trace of who objected to what.

Consensus view: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the final wording a relief that many doubters had thought unlikely, which is a participant conceding in public that the text was in doubt until the last hours.

Counter-view: Outlook India reports negotiators working to roughly 4am to bridge Iranian and Emirati positions, and the text they produced only expresses concern and calls for restraint, without naming a state. The compromise was reached by removing the subject of the sentence.

Key tension: Whether a text that only expresses concern and calls for restraint, with no named belligerent, constrains any member, given that Iran's own signature now sits under a call for restraint that sits awkwardly beside a charge its foreign ministry levelled at Washington on 9 September.

Sources:Outlook India·TASS

Mentions:BRICS →Dmitry Peskov →Kremlin →Iran →United Arab Emirates (UAE) →New Delhi →TASS →Brazil →Emirates →Russia →Washington →Bali →India →Tehran →China →Ukraine →South Africa →

First Reported In

Update #178 · Saudi bypass hit, and Riyadh holds fire

Outlook India· 13 Sept 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Pezeshkian meets Abu Dhabi's crown prince in Delhi

The Pezeshkian meeting and the declaration's Gulf language came out of the same summit.

Occurred 12 Sept 2026

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This Event

BRICS adopts the text May could not agree

The bloc produced joint language on the Gulf conflict that its foreign ministers failed to agree in May, at the cost of naming nobody.

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.