When eleven leaders gathered at Bharat Mandapam on September 12-13 and unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, the achievement lay less in what was said than in the fact that anything was agreed at all. Twenty years after BRICS foreign ministers first met in 2006, the grouping now runs from Brazil to Indonesia, accounting for roughly 40 per cent of world GDP and over a quarter of global trade. Getting Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to sign one sentence on West Asia — agreeing only to voice regret over unprovoked hostility in general terms — took Sherpas working through the night. That the declaration survived intact rather than being watered down is itself evidence that BRICS is maturing. The substance backs this up more than........

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