BRICS highlights opposition to tariffs

Opposition to US tariffs formed a point of consensus among the otherwise divergent interests at the BRICS summit, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted the bloc’s “coming of age.”

Trade tensions — though the US or President Donald Trump was never mentioned by name in the joint statement — are causing India to “reinvest in other relationships,” an expert wrote: Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first visit to India in seven years deepened the Asian giants’ thaw, as both countries’ leaders embraced Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Still, the unanimous adoption of a “watered down statement” was “more of a relief for BRICS than it is a great victory,” one expert said, with the bloc largely remaining a “pragmatic club for limited purposes.”