RIO DE JANEIRO — The BRICS bloc of developing nations condemned the increase of tariffs and attacks on Iran but refrained Sunday from naming U.S. President Donald Trump. The group’s declaration, which also took aim at Israel’s military actions in the Middle East, mentioned war-torn Ukraine just once.

Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend a BRICS summit for the first time since he became his country’s leader in 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will make an appearance via videoconference, continues to mostly avoid traveling abroad because of an international arrest warrant issued after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The group’s declaration raised “serious concerns” about the rise of tariffs that it said were “inconsistent with WTO (World Trade Organization) rules,” the document says. The group added that those restrictions “threaten reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized NATO’s decision to increase military spending by 5% of GDP annually by 2035. That sentiment was later echoed in the group’s declaration.

“It is always easier to invest in war than in peace,” Lula said at the opening of the summit.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was expected to attend the summit before the attacks on his country in June, sent his foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, to the meeting in Rio.

Araghchi told leaders he had pushed for every member of the United Nations to condemn Israel’s strikes strongly, which he called an “invasion,” state media reported. He said Israel and the U.S. should be accountable for rights violations. The Iranian foreign minister said the aftermath of the war “will not be limited” to one country.

“The entire region and beyond will be damaged,” he said.

The restraint in Rio de Janeiro marks a departure from last year’s summit hosted by Russia in Kazan, when the Kremlin sought to develop alternatives to U.S.-dominated payment systems that would allow it to dodge Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We recall our national positions concerning the conflict in Ukraine as expressed in the appropriate fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly,” the group said in its final declaration.

João Alfredo Nyegray, an international business and geopolitics professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Parana, Brazil, said the summit could have played a role in showing an alternative to an unstable world but won’t do so.

“The withdrawal of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the uncertainty about the level of representation for countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are confirming the difficulty for the BRICS to establish themselves as a cohesive pole of global leadership,” Nyegray said.

Brazil, the country that chairs the bloc, has decided to focus on less controversial issues, such as promoting global health and trade relations between members, after Trump returned to the White House, said Ana Garcia, a professor at the Rio de Janeiro Federal Rural University.

“Brazil wants the least amount of damage possible and to avoid drawing the attention of the Trump administration to prevent any type of risk to the Brazilian economy,” Garcia said.

While Brazil advocated Sunday for the reform of Western-led global institutions, a cornerstone policy of the group, the country’s government wants to avoid becoming the target of tariffs — a predicament it has so far largely escaped.

Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs against the bloc if they take any moves to undermine the dollar.

BRICS was founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but the group expanded last year to include Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.