Archive · 4 Sep 2026
India Faces Strategic Test As BRICS Summit Opens In Delhi
India is hosting a large BRICS meeting in New Delhi on September 12 and 13.
BRICS includes 11 countries, with 10 additional partner countries attending its outreach.
The group will discuss money, trade, technology, energy, food, climate, and security.
The countries have important disagreements, so reaching common decisions may be difficult.
India wants BRICS to help countries work together and have a stronger voice in world affairs.
It also wants to support trade using local currencies, although creating one shared BRICS currency is not considered realistic for now.
India must carefully manage its relationships with the United States, China, Iran, Russia, and Bangladesh.
Talks with China could help stabilize relations, but they will not solve the border dispute by themselves.
The summit will show whether India can turn BRICS’s diversity into practical cooperation.
The September 12–13 BRICS Summit in New Delhi will bring together 11 members and 10 partner countries.
India’s agenda includes financial reform, local currencies, trade, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, climate, and security.
The expanded grouping faces divisions over the West Asia crisis, relations with the West, and the roles of China and India.
India must balance ties with the United States, Iran, China, Russia, and Bangladesh during the summit.
New Delhi aims to use its chairmanship to strengthen Global South cooperation without turning BRICS into an anti-Western alliance.
- Who
- India will host the 11 BRICS members, 10 partner countries, and leaders including Narendra Modi; Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are expected to attend.
- What
- The New Delhi BRICS Summit will address global economic, technological, environmental, energy, and security issues while testing the group’s ability to act cohesively.
- When
- September 12–13; India is chairing BRICS under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability.”
- Where
- New Delhi, India.
- Why
- India seeks to demonstrate strategic autonomy, strengthen Global South cooperation, promote institutional reform, and convert BRICS’s expanded membership into practical influence.
Cooperation And Institutional Reform
Geopolitical Rivalry And Fragmentation
BRICS’s global role
Cooperation And Institutional Reform
India can use BRICS to strengthen Global South representation, reform international institutions, and promote cooperation without targeting the United States or Europe.
Geopolitical Rivalry And Fragmentation
The group’s growing Chinese and Russian influence could challenge the existing global economic order and encourage an anti-American or anti-Western alignment.
Economic and financial coordination
Cooperation And Institutional Reform
Local-currency lending, alternative payment mechanisms, resilient supply chains, and cooperation in energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and critical minerals could produce practical benefits.
Geopolitical Rivalry And Fragmentation
Different monetary systems, convertibility rules, and financial regulations make replacing the dollar or creating a common BRICS currency highly difficult.
Managing internal differences
Cooperation And Institutional Reform
Expanded membership can give BRICS greater representation while allowing countries to cooperate on shared interests despite political disagreements.
Geopolitical Rivalry And Fragmentation
Conflicting positions among China, India, Russia, Iran, and members that retain Western relationships may prevent the grouping from speaking with one voice, as shown by the May ministers’ meeting.
- BRICS membership
- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
- Partner countries
- Ten partner countries will participate in summit outreach.
- India’s BRICS chairmanship
- India has previously chaired BRICS in 2012, 2016, and 2021.
- Chairmanship theme
- “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability.”
- Key agenda areas
- Financial reform, local currencies, trade, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, climate change, food and energy security, terrorism, and development finance.
- Preparatory meetings
- More than 350 BRICS meetings have been held in over 25 Indian cities during India’s chairmanship.
- Recent difficulty
- A BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi in May ended without a joint communiqué over differences concerning the West Asia crisis.