What happened

Two months into the US-Iran war, the BRICS bloc has been unable to respond collectively to a conflict involving one of its own members. Iran joined BRICS in 2024, yet the grouping has issued no joint statement, convened no emergency session, and taken no coordinated action.

Why it matters: BRICS positions itself as a counterweight to Western-dominated institutions. Its silence during the worst crisis to hit a member state tests whether the bloc is a meaningful geopolitical force or a forum for economic coordination with no capacity for collective security.

India’s careful chair

India assumed the rotating BRICS chairmanship for 2026 and has conspicuously avoided escalation. New Delhi faces 50% US tariffs on Indian goods, including a 25% secondary tariff linked to India’s continued oil trade with Russia. Calling an emergency BRICS session on Iran would risk further confrontation with Washington at a time when trade relations are already strained.

Iranian leaders including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have publicly called on BRICS to help end the conflict. Those calls have gone unanswered at the institutional level.

South Africa’s balancing act

South Africa faces its own diplomatic pressure. In January, joint BRICS naval exercises off the coast of Cape Town included warships from China, Russia and Iran. Washington accused Pretoria of “cosying up” to Tehran.

President Ramaphosa ordered a probe into how Iran came to participate as a full partner in the drills rather than as an observer. Defence officials had reportedly been instructed to limit Tehran’s role, but Iran participated fully. The incident strained South Africa’s relationship with the United States at a time when Pretoria is trying to maintain ties with both Washington and the BRICS bloc.

Ramaphosa has taken a formally nonaligned stance on the Iran conflict, calling for peace and describing the US-Israeli operation as “anticipatory self-defence” not permitted under the United Nations Charter.

Pakistan fills the gap

The most consequential mediation has come not from BRICS but from Pakistan, which brokered the two-week ceasefire on 8 April and hosted direct US-Iran talks in Islamabad. Pakistan is not a BRICS member.

That a non-member has done more to address the crisis than the bloc itself reinforces the perception that BRICS lacks the institutional mechanisms for collective security action.

What happens next

The ceasefire expires on 22 April, and a second round of talks is expected before then. BRICS foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in June under India’s chairmanship, but the agenda has not been published.

If member states continue to prioritise bilateral stability with Washington over bloc solidarity, analysts say BRICS will cement its role as an economic forum rather than a geopolitical alliance. For South Africa, the question is whether its BRICS membership creates more diplomatic risk than leverage in the current geopolitical environment.