That was then:
(l to r: Brazil President Luna da Silva, China President Xi Jinping, South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov)
The BRICS coalition meeting just weeks ago in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This is now:
President Biden poses with three-fifths of the BRICS coalition, minus Russia and China whose leaders didn't attend the G 20 summit in New Delhi this weekend.
Their absence gave Biden the opportunity to woo many of the nations dependent on China and Russia, signing an agreement to open up economic opportunities in Africa, and creating an "economic corridor" from India through the Middle East to Europe that would compete with China's Belt and Road Initiative.
This by no means signals the demise of the Russia / China centric BRICS coalition, but it does signal that there's a growing crack in the BRICS mortar.
(photos: Government of South Africa, Associated Press)
