On September 12-13, New Delhi will host the 18th BRICS Summit, bringing together the expanded grouping of 11 members and 10 partner countries. India, which assumed the BRICS chair for the fourth time this year, has chosen an unusually hopeful theme for an increasingly complicated grouping: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, reflecting a people-centric approach rooted in “Humanity First”.

But behind that uplifting language lies a harder question: can a group this big still act as one?

BRICS is certainly no longer the small club of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. With Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia joining, it now carries enormous demographic and economic weight; for instance, the intra-BRICS merchandise trade crossed $1.17 trillion in 2024, more than thirteen times its 2003 level.

Yet there is an intriguing paradox: BRICS has become bigger faster than it has become deeper.

Its members do not share a common worldview. India and China remain strategic competitors. Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have their own complex rivalries. Several BRICS........

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