New Delhi, Jan. 10 -- The coordinated military exercise signals BRICS' growing strategic ambition amid escalating US pressure and global power realignment.

Warships from China, Russia, and Iran arrived this week at South Africa's historic Simon's Town Naval Base, marking the opening phase of a joint naval exercise that underscores the accelerating military coordination among non-Western powers under the expanding BRICS framework. The drills, scheduled to run for several days in waters off the southern tip of Africa, are being framed by participating states as defensive and cooperative. Yet their geopolitical symbolism is unmistakable.

The arrival of the flotilla comes at a moment of heightened global tension, with maritime trade routes ...