By Lisandra Paraguassu RIO DE JANEIRO -Leaders of the growing BRICS group of developing nations were set to gather in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, calling for reform of traditional Western institutions while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism in an increasingly fractured world.

In the absence of Putin and Xi, the summit was dominated by Brazil’s Lula and India’s Modi, the leaders of the two largest BRICS democracies – and the least interested in turning the grouping into an anti-Western alliance. Antagonizing the United States was not on the agenda.