All Delhi roads lead to Bharat Mandapam. Traffic advisories issued, offices closed on September 11, cleanliness drive affot, the city gets ready to host the eighteenth BRICS summit on September 12 and 13.Twenty years down the line, the group returns to a city that has already hosted it thrice. But the mood is sombre this time. The elephant in the room; two wars, whether anyone names them from the podium or not.One is in Ukraine, well into its fourth year, with Russia a full member of BRICS and still fighting it. The other is newer and just as awkward; US-Iran, ignited early this year and has not really stopped, recurring at intervals since. Iran too sits at the BRICS table.India has spent years trying to stay close to Washington and Brussels while keeping its old friendship with Moscow and Tehran intact.The war shadowThis is the real story of the summit, more than the theme banners about resilience and innovation. BRICS tried to bring together countries which felt left out of a West-dominated world order. A simple idea 20 years back, involving four nations trading grievances about IMF and World Bank, is much harder now when two of its members are actually at war with countries the rest of the group would rather not like to antagonise.Russia’s war goes on with a grinding predictability at this point; drone strikes, front lines that barely move, sanctions that Moscow works around every quarter.Iran’s war is different. Ignited suddenly by US and Israel, resulting in the annihilation of its leadership and strikes on nuclear sites, it has engulfed the whole Gulf region. The Strait of Hormuz being the new global hotspot is choked and casualties are rising continuously.It is a catch-22 situation for India. Hormuz has long been a gateway for India’s energy needs, catering much of its 85 per cent of crude oil imports. Livelihood of millions of Indian workers depends upon the Gulf states.India has invested heavily trying to build a warm relationship with Washington through semiconductor deals, defence tie-ups, technology transfers, alongside a shared suspicion of China which runs deeper than either side likes to admit in public.At the same time, India has civilisational and cultural ties with Iran, which are hard to brush aside, given Chabahar port, trade and commerce between the two and common sensitivity about Pakistan. Suffice to say that instability in the Gulf hits every Indian household paying for LPG or petrol.South Africa and Brazil experience a milder manifestation of the same puzzle. Neither of them can be seen endorsing a war on a fellow BRICS member. Yet, neither wants to rub Washington on the wrong side, especially with global trade already in turmoil.China’s cardsChina is the only member with a free hand here. Much closer to Russia than it has been in years, it is quietly building trade with Iran and happy to criticise the US without having to bear its repercussions.This is where the summit’s language matters more than usual. If there is a final declaration that names both wars directly, expect it to be formulated with ultra care, with enough words about escalation, sovereignty and need for dialogue to satisfy Moscow and Tehran, but without ruffling Washington’s feathers.Multilateral diplomacy is mostly about careful drafting. Yet, the novelty is in doing it twice, for two live wars, in front of leaders who are invested deeply, in how the wording lands back home.BRICS’ futureMoreover, hiding under this conundrum is a silent issue; what BRICS denotes now. When BRICS was established and after its first expansion also, its claim to speak for the Global South was genuine.An expanded, 11 member BRICS consisting of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Ethiopia, may not have that unified voice anymore. It has members observing sanctions and members openly defying them, members funding opposite sides of regional rivalries and members like India which may prefer to discuss the New Development Bank and DPI, rather than take sides on anyone’s war.India’s attempt as the Summit Chair may be to nudge the group exactly towards that kind of agenda; green finance, technology cooperation, economic partnership and supply chains. A tough call, yet New Delhi may like this summit to be remembered for the BRICS Economic Partnership roadmap than about wars. And this would be the most pragmatic approach for India.Looking aheadThis does not mean that BRICS is about to disintegrate. Groupings like this have survived worse mismatches of interests before, mostly by agreeing to disagree in public and doing the real business privately. Yet there is a moment worth noticing. A bloc that presented itself as an alternative pole to the West is now hosting, inside its own membership, two of the most serious wars in the world, one of them involving the very superpower BRICS was supposedly formed to counterbalance.For India, the test now is less about drafting a clever paragraph in New Delhi and more about the years ahead. India has to keep proving, summit after summit, that it can sit in a room with Russia and Iran without Washington frowning, and sit in a room with the West without Moscow and Tehran raising their eyebrows.That balancing act has served India reasonably well so far. Whether this continues, with two wars showing no signs of ending soon, is the million-dollar question of this summit.The writer is Vice-Chairman, PanIIT Alumni India and NESA, Washington DC alum, is Registrar, Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA)Published on September 11, 2026