When the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, they did not only attack a sovereign nation. They attacked the foundational principle that the Global South has spent decades trying to institutionalise, that military force cannot be the first language of international relations, and that no power, however large, should be above the rules it demands others follow. For BRICS, the war on Iran is not a crisis of credibility. It is a clarifying moment.
A Bloc Built for This Moment
Iran joined BRICS in 2024, in a deliberate act of institutional solidarity. Its membership was a statement, that the Global South would not allow Washington’s designation of a country as a pariah to determine who belongs at the table of emerging multilateral cooperation. When Israeli airstrikes began on June 13, 2025, and US bombers followed days later targeting Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, Russia described the strikes as "unjustifiable on legal, political, military or ethical grounds," China condemned violations of Iranian sovereignty, Brazil denounced "clear violations of sovereignty and international law," and South Africa raised concerns about civilian protection. These were not weak responses, they were sovereign states speaking truth to the most heavily armed military alliance in human history, at real diplomatic and economic cost.
In a rare demonstration of their veto powers at the United Nations Security Council, China and Russia jointly blocked a Bahraini resolution supported by the Gulf states and the US that would have authorised the use of force for "defensive purposes" in the Strait of Hormuz. This intervention mattered because it was BRICS’s two largest members using the multilateral architecture to restrain escalation and it worked. Shortly after, Trump backed away from his most aggressive rhetoric and announced a ceasefire. The Western media buried that outcome. It should not be buried.
The India Question in Context
Much has been made of India’s cautious positioning during the conflict, given that it held the BRICS chair. But framing this as BRICS "failing" misreads what BRICS actually is. "BRICS is not an alliance of like-minded countries," analysts note. "It is a loose grouping with a broad-based agenda encompassing trade, development, economic cooperation and strengthening multilateralism." India’s strategic autonomy doctrine, the same doctrine that allows it to buy Russian oil despite Western sanctions, to resist IMF conditionality, and to maintain independent foreign policy, is not a contradiction of BRICS values. It is an expression of them. The bloc was never designed to impose uniformity. It was designed to protect the right of nations to chart their own course.
What is worth scrutinising is not India’s independence, but the double standard applied to it. When NATO members disagree, as Spain and Turkey did publicly over the Iran strikes, no one declares NATO finished. When BRICS members hold different positions, Western commentators rush to announce the bloc’s collapse. The asymmetry is telling.
The Deeper Stakes: Energy, Trade and the Global South
The consequences of this war are falling hardest on the countries BRICS was built to represent. Fuel prices in the Philippines more than doubled following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. A rise in LPG prices on the black market forced migrant workers in India out of cities. Nearly half of India’s crude oil and LNG imports, and close to 40% of China’s oil supplies, pass through the strait. The Global South did not start this war but it is paying for it.
This is precisely why the BRICS project of building alternative financial infrastructure, the push for trade in local currencies, the New Development Bank, the broader de-dollarisation agenda, is not an abstract ideology. It is a survival strategy. A world in which the US dollar remains the primary instrument of global trade is a world in which Washington can wage economic and military war simultaneously, with developing nations absorbing the collateral damage. The war has given Beijing another opportunity to contrast its declared faith in multilateralism and cooperation with the Global South against the conduct of the United States.
What Comes Next
BRICS will hold its 2026 summit in India later this year, with both Iran and the UAE in attendance, making it one of the most geopolitically loaded gatherings the bloc has ever convened. The coming months may prove pivotal. If tensions in the Middle East deepen, BRICS will face pressure to articulate positions that go beyond general calls for dialogue and stability.
Written by:
*Dr Iqbal Survé
Past chairman of the BRICS Business Council and co-chairman of the BRICS Media Forum and the BRNN
*Chloe Maluleke
Associate at BRICS+ Consulting Group
Russia & Middle East Specialist
**The Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL.
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