Iran, UAE set to come face to face at BRICS India meet

New Delhi: India, under its BRICS presidency, will host a meeting of senior officials of the group that will bring the UAE and Iran face to face for the first time since the West Asian conflict.

While the agenda of the meeting is broader West Asian and North African issues, including Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, all eyes will be on the current situation and its impact on the Gulf states. Iran, the UAE, besides Saudi Arabia, are members of BRICS.

Earlier, BRICS could not issue a statement on the war as consensus eluded it due to differences between Iran and UAE. Saudi Arabia also faced retaliatory strikes from Iran in the backdrop of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran that accused the Gulf states of allowing the US to use their territory to attack Iran.


Efforts are underway by host India to ensure smooth proceedings and arrive at a conclusion that is satisfactory to all sides, ET has learnt.

Egypt, a member of BRICS and India's strategic partner, is assisting India to hold a successful meeting and subsequently other meetings, including foreign ministers' meet in May and the summit in September.


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Egyptian envoy Galal banks on 'wisdom of Indian diplomacy'

"Despite the complexity of the situation in the Middle East, I am confident that the wisdom of Indian diplomacy will be able to safely sail through the upcoming meeting of the special envoys on the Middle East later this month. Having said that, Egypt, as key anchor of stability in the region, and with an extended experience in navigating through turbulent security and political regional landscape, will provide the Indian chairship of BRICS all needed assistance and advice to ensure that BRICS is capable of speaking with one voice, and a shared position, towards the root causes of one of the most dangerous challenges to international peace and stability, and strains on global economy supply and value added chains," Kamel Zayed Galal, ambassador of Egypt to India, told ET. Similarly, Russia, a founding member of BRICS, has also extended its support to India's BRICS Presidency.





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Under Brazil's presidency, the 2025 BRICS Declaration stated: "We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025, which constitute a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and express grave concern over the subsequent escalation of the security situation in the Middle East..."