Pakistan, Sept. 14 -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the BRICS summit in New Delhi this week that the Global South must graduate from being a "rule-taker" to becoming a "rule-shaper." It may have been a good slogan, but it also raised a long list of questions India would rather not answer.

The summit itself supplied a persuasive argument for BRICS. Eleven countries representing nearly half the world's population and about 40 per cent of global output managed to agree on a declaration despite a war that has placed some of their members on opposing sides. Iran endorsed language calling for "maximum restraint." So did the UAE, which has itself been hit by Iranian projectiles during the conflict. President Masoud Pezeshkian and Abu...