Israel's war on Gaza has exposed 'deep divide' within Brics, experts say

As Brics gears up for its annual summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, the group's reluctance to mobilise against Israel's war on Gaza has left a gaping hole in its credibility as an institution purportedly meant to represent the Global South, experts and scholars have said.

The failure of Brics to take a bold stance and build consensus in addressing a perilous global climate involving multiple wars and an escalating crisis in the Middle East - including Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran, a member of Brics - illustrates the limitations of the grouping and a structural inability to pose a serious challenge to the US-led world order, the scholars said.

Since its inception in 2009, Brics has been touted as an attempt to consolidate economic cooperation as well as reform the international system to better serve the interests of developing economies.

Its success has been, at best, patchy, with the group being dogged by internal contradictions and competing member interests that have only appeared to deepen over the past decade. 

Next week's summit in Rio, starting on 6 July, is already a diluted affair, with both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping expected to skip the event for reasons that perfectly encapsulate the ambivalence surrounding both the efficacy as well as the political posturing of the bloc itself.

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