Excellent photo taken during the BRICS "Will for Peace 2026" exercise in South Africa: the IRGC Naval Base Shahid Mahdavi (110-3) + the IRGC Expeditionary Naval Base Makran (441) and, although very small compared to the other two naval units, the IRGC corvette Naghdi (82).
Photo by Brenton Geach.
Coming a little late to this topic, but some friends and I just hashed this out and opinions must be heard
Alright, I love China, but my take is that these BRICS+ naval exercises are… kind of ridiculous and look bad for all involved.
BRICS+ is an economic bloc, not a military alliance, and yet China is running “Will for Peace 2026” with Russia and Iran. When I think peace, those are not the first two countries that come to mind. The whole thing got postponed, Iran barely participated, and nobody seems to know what actually happened at sea. It’s like watching someone throw a dinner party at someone else's house and of the two other people who show up, the host asks one to leave.
What I don't get is that China already has the SCO, why not just use that? That’s literally what it’s for. No confusion, no awkward optics, and no one ends up looking like they accidentally sent the wrong calendar invite. Instead, under BRICS they had to basically rebrand as a “peace” exercise, which is frankly silly. You’ve got countries actively involved in wars or regional conflicts, and China’s trying to squeeze them into a trade group.
Then there’s the diplomatic headache. South Africa, the host, had to juggle U.S. trade preferences while China, Russia, and Iran sailed around their waters. Experts even warned back then that including Iran and Russia “risks damaging relations with key trading partners in Europe and the U.S.” Talk about mixing business with… well, naval theater practice.
At the end of the day, this isn’t showing strength. I fear it gives the impression, right or wrong, of sloppy planning and bad optics. No MOSI-IV has been scheduled, the timing keeps slipping, and the messaging is all over the place. BRICS+ is supposed to be about trade and economic cooperation, not awkward military pageantry.
China could run a smarter, simpler exercise through the SCO or some other new organization where the name matched the reality, and everyone could save themselves the head-scratching moments.
What does anyone else say? (slowly puts on flame retardant suit)