India, July 16 -- Yet another Brics Summit has ended as a non-event. The joint declaration at Rio de Janeiro, despite its grandstanding about multilateralism and a rules-based international order, is more notable for its political posturing: it calls for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and condemnation of Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure.

The fact that geopolitics now occupies more mind space than economics in Brics is evident from the near silence in the declaration on its once-flagship initiative - a Brics common currency. The focus has quietly shifted to a more modest, though still ambitious, goal of promoting trade and settlement in local currencies.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has threatened 10% additional tariffs...