"What we've seen since the BRICS Summit is direct action towards Brazil and India," Gustavo de Carvalho, senior researcher in the geopolitics of the Global South at the South African Institute of International Affairs, says of the U.S. tariffs. 

Ironically, heaping pressure on its member states is accelerating the BRICS momentum towards greater independence from the Western framework, adds de Carvalho. He predicts external threats will only strengthen BRICS as a group.