Such is the depth of political, social, and economic uncertainty in Europe, and such is the scale of the US’s failure as a global power, that a sense of political scorn and economic superiority has paved the way for strategic suspicion in the West about a group of misfits such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS+). The concern is not about the emergence of a Sino-centric order with BRICS+ as its institutional vehicle. The endurance of Sino-Indian and Iran-Emirati rivalries despite diplomatic dialogue in both dyads, and independent concerns about Chinese behaviour among other member- States in BRICS+, reassures western capitals that this group is not a unified geopolitical bloc. The rather mild 2026 New Delhi Declaration will, unsurprisingly, not raise hackles.
