United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday, 13 September 2026, issued a sweeping call for peace at the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, as leaders from nations directly embroiled in active conflicts sat together at the same table. His appeal spanned Gaza, the broader Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, and other flashpoints that have disproportionately devastated the Global South.

'From Gaza, to the broader crisis in the Middle East, to Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, our world needs peace,' Guterres said, framing peace as indispensable for achieving 'inclusive global growth.'

High-Stakes Diplomacy in the Room

The summit brought together an unusually charged set of participants. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud — all parties to the simmering West Asia conflict — were present simultaneously. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, whose 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered a global crisis in foodgrains and fertilisers, also attended. The convergence of adversaries under one roof underscored both the breadth of BRICS membership and the complexity of building consensus across conflicting geopolitical loyalties.

Guterres on International Law

The UN chief urged all member states to honour their obligations under the UN Charter and international law. He specifically enumerated these as encompassing 'international navigational rights and freedoms; the principles of sovereign equality; respect for territorial integrity and political independence of States; peaceful settlement of disputes, and observance of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.' The remarks carried pointed relevance given that disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — following the February attack on Iran by Israel and the United States — have choked off a significant share of the roughly 20 per cent of the world's petroleum and gas supply that transits the waterway.

Summit Theme and Modi's Framing

Guterres aligned his message with the summit's overarching theme set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'As your Summit's theme rightly frames it, we must build for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability,' he said, calling these values 'essential for shaping inclusive global growth.' Peace, he stressed, was a precondition for each of these aims — not a parallel aspiration but a foundational requirement.

What the BRICS Declaration Said

Guterres' appeal found partial echo in the BRICS joint declaration adopted on Saturday. The 11-member group expressed 'deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East/West Asia' and called for 'exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation.' On Gaza, the declaration urged all parties to maintain the ceasefire, affirmed Palestinians' 'inalienable rights,' and opposed their displacement. On Sudan, it voiced 'grave concern over the deteriorating situation' and demanded 'an immediate, permanent ceasefire.'

Notably, the Ukraine war was conspicuously absent from the declaration — a significant diplomatic retreat from last year's Brazil summit, where at least a brief reference acknowledging members' positions in international forums was included. Analysts suggest the omission reflects the difficulty of forging consensus inside an expanded BRICS that now includes both Russia and countries heavily aligned with Western positions. In a rare display of BRICS-driven diplomatic alignment, the leaders of Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia all signed on to the joint declaration — a signal that the bloc's expanded architecture can, at minimum, produce formal convergence on select regional crises.

Whether the diplomatic language translates into tangible de-escalation across any of these theatres remains the defining question as BRICS nations return to their respective capitals.