The leaders and diplomats of BRICS member states are meeting in New Delhi to consider how their combined political and economic muscle might be used to build an alternative to the American-led global order. In some ways, President Donald Trump’s refusal to allow America play its traditional postwar leadership role has created new opportunities for the bloc. Yet its ambitions remain constrained by an inconvenient fact: India, China, Russia and Brazil do not align particularly well.
For its part, China is seeking to extend its global influence. For President Xi Jinping, this summit is another stage in an international roadshow that has included a leading role at this year’s to help mediate the ongoing war in the Middle East and, later this month, by promoting more channels for nondollar lending, the wider use of the renminbi to settle trade, and progress toward linking digital payment systems, an effort India has long resisted.