'BRICS' forum brings together emerging economies, aimed at countering western dominance

India hosts the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi this weekend. BRICS is a grouping of major emerging markets and developing countries. Transcript SCOTT SIMON, HOST: A summit meeting is taking place in New Delhi that includes countries - Iran and several Gulf nations - who are now at war. It's a meeting of a group called BRICS, and it represents about half of the population of the world. We're joined now from New Delhi by NPR's international correspondent Diaa Hadid. Diaa, thanks very much for being with us.DIAA HADID, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.SIMON: What's the summit about?HADID: Well, BRICS is effectively a forum for emerging economies. It's aimed at countering long-standing Western dominance, and there's leaders from more than a dozen countries who've turned up. And, Scott, it's quite the gathering. China's president, Xi Jinping, and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, are here. But for now, the attention is on those involved in the latest Mideast war, because the Iranian president is here, and Iran has been striking Gulf countries that are also at the summit - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. And that's because Iran accuses them of backing the United States.And ...