In a virtual summit held on Tuesday, leaders of the BRICS-Plus bloc skirted potential disagreements over members' differing positions on the Middle East conflict.

The leaders of the 11 BRICS-Plus countries agreed to disagree on some contentious issues - particularly on Hamas - in their virtual summit on the crisis in Israel and Gaza on Tuesday, 21 November.

The leaders issued a "chair's summary" of the meeting rather than a joint communique. This approach allowed them to avoid having to find common positions on divisive questions.

The virtual summit was chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as current chairperson of BRICS, and attended by the leaders of the other BRICS member states: Brazil, Russia and China plus the foreign minister of India.

The six new states admitted as BRICS members in August - Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - also participated.

Argentina was represented by its foreign minister while the others were represented by heads of state or government. UN Secretary-General António Guterres also attended.

A conspicuous absentee was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apparently because of a clash of schedules. But it is also possible he stayed away because India has a different approach to the Middle East crisis from most of the others.

Ramaphosa's "chair's summary" navigated carefully around some differences. For example, he said the leaders...