NEW DELHI: BRICS countries have reached consensus on a leaders’ Joint Statement after marathon negotiations that continued until 4 am on Saturday, overcoming sharp differences over the language on the West Asia conflict, people familiar with the discussions said.
The agreement is being seen as a significant diplomatic breakthrough for India, which is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi. The statement is expected to be issued later on Saturday.
The negotiations had been complicated by divergent positions among members, particularly Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are part of the expanded BRICS grouping despite their competing geopolitical interests and differences over the ongoing West Asia crisis.
Sources said India led sustained consultations at both official and political levels to bridge the differences and prevent the disagreements from derailing the summit outcome.
“Stakes are very high here. And we are trying at every level, including at the political level, to reach a consensus on the language of the joint statement where it deals with West Asia. These negotiations often go down to the wire,” a source familiar with the discussions had told TNIE earlier.
The most difficult issue was the formulation of the conflict involving Iran and the Gulf states. Tehran wanted the statement to explicitly refer to the unilateral attack on Iran and what it described as a violation of the UN Charter.
The UAE, meanwhile, sought language recognising what it considers Iranian attacks on its sovereignty and territory.
Sources said formulations referring to sovereignty, territorial integrity and violations of the UN Charter were being negotiated in broader terms. Iran, however, had initially pushed back against attempts to subsume its position into a generic reference.
“The concern in Tehran was that the reference to the unilateral attack and the alleged violation of the UN Charter should not be diluted or ‘subsumed into a generic formulation’,” a source said.
The UAE has rejected Iranian allegations over its role in the conflict and maintains that Iranian attacks constitute violations of the UN Charter and international law.
Iran, in turn, has accused Gulf states of allowing US military infrastructure to be used for American operations, while insisting that its retaliatory strikes target US military installations.
The Palestine issue, by comparison, proved less contentious.
Sources said there was “broad acceptance” of retaining the formulation from the 2025 Rio declaration describing Gaza as “an inseparable part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and calling for the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.