This year’s BRICS leaders’ summit was relatively subdued compared with recent meetings of the bloc, which underwent a rapid expansion and recently added several new members. But the event, held on Sunday and Monday in Rio de Janeiro, still managed to attract U.S. President Donald Trump’s ire.
Only half of the bloc’s 10 member countries—Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and South Africa—sent their heads of government to the summit, with major leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin passing on attending in person. In an attempt to avoid tariff threats from Trump, host Brazil emphasized issues such as economic development and climate rather than more contentious topics, such as the use of local currencies in intra-BRICS trade.
That focus was in line with Brazil’s longtime stance on BRICS. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva likes to say the bloc is “not against anyone”; his top diplomatic advisor Celso Amorim recently argued that the group was “not the West, not the East, [but] the global south.”
The 16,000-word summit declaration released on Sunday was in large part boilerplate. Just like previous BRICS documents, it contained a strong defense of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. It detailed technical matters involving ties between people, bureaucracies, businesses, and civil society in BRICS member countries. The declaration also called for inclusive artificial intelligence governance that respects the regulatory needs and autonomy of the global south.
The declaration criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and defended Palestinian aspirations for statehood. Lula told his fellow leaders that “we cannot remain indifferent to the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, and the use of hunger as a weapon of war.” Although numerous human rights organizations have labeled Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide, Israel and many of its Western allies dispute these claims.
In a section bound to raise eyebrows across the West, the declaration condemned “in the strongest terms” deliberate attacks on civilians and infrastructure in Russia, without directly citing Ukraine as a perpetrator. Yet BRICS failed to censure Russia for its invasion of and similar attacks on Ukraine. When opening the first summit session, Lula also criticized NATO for increasing defense spending, saying that doing so fueled an “arms race” and that it was “always easier to invest in war than in peace.”
The declaration contained veiled criticism of the United States on a range of issues, including recent U.S. military strikes on Iran and unilateral tariffs “inconsistent with WTO [World Trade Organization] rules.” Still, the final document did not mention the United States by name. Drafters clearly hoped that BRICS would escape unscathed from Trump’s wrath.
On Sunday night, however, Trump posted on Truth Social threatening an additional 10 percent tariff on any country “aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS.” The brief post did not clarify whether the threat extended only to the bloc’s members or whether its partner countries should also be on notice. The statement was particularly alarming for those BRICS countries and partners, such as China, India, and Indonesia, attempting to negotiate trade deals with Washington ahead of July 9, Trump’s initial deadline for imposing sweeping tariffs. (The White House announced on Monday that it would delay implementing those tariffs until Aug. 1 to give countries more time to negotiate.)
Trump’s social media post was not the first time he has taken aim at BRICS countries. In November 2024, Trump floated the idea of a 100 percent tariff on BRICS countries if they tried to create their own currency to replace the dollar, an unlikely proposal that BRICS has never officially adopted. His recent threat appears to target any countries involved in BRICS. That’s unnerving for countries such as Brazil and India, which see the United States as a vital partner and have resisted BRICS’s anti-Western lean. The two countries are keen to preserve and deepen ties both to the United States and to Russia and China.
Amorim immediately sought to de-escalate: Trump’s “threats only show the need for an organization like the BRICS, which has the capacity to react, to meet and reach conclusions. … [BRICS] didn’t threaten the U.S. with anything.” A South African trade ministry spokesperson told Reuters that the country was not anti-American and remained interested in negotiating a trade deal with the United States.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke with more candor. “It is really disappointing that when there is such a very positive collective manifestation such as BRICS, there should be others who see it in negative light and want to punish those who participate,” he said. Spokespeople of both the Chinese and Russian governments also rejected Trump’s claims that BRICS was anti-American.
Trump’s label of BRICS as “anti-American” is questionable. Most members and partner countries embrace multialignment; except Iran and Russia, all BRICS members have significant ties to the United States that they are interested in preserving. Trump’s rhetoric can be understood as part of a broader strategy to disincentivize countries from embracing positions that run counter to U.S. interests.
In taking aim at BRICS, Washington is trying to increase the political costs for countries that openly confront the United States, such as Iran and new BRICS partner Cuba. But more importantly, the United States seeks to complicate multialignment as a doctrine. Trump may aim to convince countries that are seeking to join BRICS—such as Turkey, which is also a NATO member—to rethink their plans.
In the same way, Trump’s message may also be a warning to the growing group of BRICS countries. Along with Cuba, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam earned the label in Rio—the latter just after concluding a trade negotiation with Trump. It will be particularly interesting to watch how these partner countries—in their new, loosely defined relationships with BRICS—respond to Trump’s ongoing threats.
The geopolitical uncertainty Trump is causing for BRICS may already be working to his advantage. Countries were less assertive about their interest in joining BRICS in Rio compared with last year’s summit in Russia. Whereas global leaders interested in building ties with the bloc flocked to the 2024 summit, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this year fewer countries reasserted their interest. Both Erdogan and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declined invitations to join the summit in Brazil, sending their foreign ministers instead.