BRICS no longer matters

The emerging-market grouping has failed to retain relevance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the virtual summit of the BRICS nations under the presidency of the People’s Republic of China, focused on co-operation between the five countries with regard to the post-pandemic recovery and increasing mutual investment. Although virtual, the summit will not have been an entirely comfortable experience for Indian officials. The grouping has become increasingly dominated by Chinese interests, with Moscow even more dependent on Beijing following its Ukraine invasion. Russia is an autocracy, but even democratic South African intellectual and policy-making circles have been the target of Chinese influence efforts and increasingly toe Beijing’s line. At