India, May 20 -- The confirmation from Moscow that President Vladimir Putin will attend the Brics summit in New Delhi in September raises the profile of the event. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also scheduled to attend - Putin and Xi are expected to have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit, according to reports from Russia. At a time when multilateralism is on the decline and the old West-centric, liberal, rules-based order is unravelling, Brics has the potential to emerge as an important arbitrator in global affairs. But can the bloc rise to the task?

Brics is no monolith: Its member States carry diverse views. At the recent Delhi conclave, Iran and the UAE sparred over the war in West Asia, and a joint statement could ...