It likes to think of itself as the developing world’s equivalent of the Group of Seven. Yet unlike the G-7, the Brics bloc – designed for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but now expanded to 11 members – has sharply diverging interests.

It includes energy exporters like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as importers like India; material-hungry manufacturing giants like China and commodity superpowers like Brazil; moderate democracies like Indonesia and extremist theocracies like Iran.