New Delhi will become the centre of high-stakes diplomacy on Saturday as India opens the 18th BRICS Summit, with the challenge of finding common ground among an expanded group of powers carrying sharply different geopolitical and economic interests.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host the two-day summit at Bharat Mandapam on September 12 and 13. Leaders of BRICS member states will be joined by representatives of partner countries and outreach invitees as India seeks to turn its fourth chairship of the grouping into concrete cooperation.
The summit comes in the year BRICS completes two decades. India has already hosted more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements across over 25 cities during its chairship.
BRICS Summit puts India’s consensus-building skills to test
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said the timing gives India an opportunity to reinforce its global role and deepen its engagement with the Global South.
“Timing is very important for BRICS because we are seeing an intensification of volatility in the global economic and financial order, as well as in the global order as a whole. BRICS is meant to provide new contributions to the global order at a time when there is rising discontent with that order, particularly within the Global South,” Kugelman said.
He argued that the real test would be whether members can agree on a substantive joint statement.
“India will measure the success of this summit by its ability to produce a joint statement that is substantive. To get a joint statement, you need to produce some type of consensus within BRICS,” he said.
Kugelman cautioned that expansion has also made agreement harder as more countries and competing interests have entered the grouping.
He identified West Asia and differing approaches towards the United States as two particularly difficult issues for India to navigate.
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Iran brings financial integration debate into focus
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, who arrived in New Delhi ahead of the summit, backed India’s leadership of the grouping.
“We consider India as a great emerging country, which is now presiding over BRICS,” Araghchi said. “BRICS is a very important institution right now and is playing a very important role. I’m sure that India is able to lead the BRICS group and the countries that are members of this group in an excellent way.”
Araghchi also addressed one of the grouping’s closely watched economic questions — the use of national currencies in trade.
“Inside BRICS, there are different opinions, but all members of the group believe that national currencies should be strengthened and trade between the member states should be conducted through national currencies,” he said.
On the prospect of a common currency, he said: “But having a single currency is still under consideration.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also in New Delhi and met PM Modi ahead of the summit. The two discussed bilateral ties and recent developments in West Asia.
Modi pitches resilient supply chains ahead of BRICS talks
At the BRICS Business Forum on Friday, India PM Modi said India had diversified supply chains across sectors and could offer growth and stability despite global uncertainty.
“Over the past 12 years, India has made this mantra the foundation of its economic and trade policies. Regarding resilience, India has made supply chains spanning sectors from energy to technology more diversified and reliable,” PM Modi said.
He also stressed the importance of secure sea lanes, open supply routes, and the safety of seafarers for global trade.
India’s chairship is built around the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’. The summit will also examine ways to deepen intra-BRICS cooperation and discuss global and regional issues.
BRICS partners and outreach invitees arrive in Delhi
Several leaders and senior representatives had reached New Delhi ahead of the summit.
Among them are Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Philippine President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr, Burundi President and African Union Chairperson Évariste Ndayishimiye, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
World Trade Organisation Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has also arrived for the summit.
Marcos is attending as chair of ASEAN for 2026, while Ndayishimiye represents the African Union.
The second day will broaden the discussions beyond BRICS members, with partner countries and outreach invitees joining the proceedings.
India marks fourth BRICS chairship
India assumed the BRICS chairship on January 1, its fourth after earlier terms in 2012, 2016, and 2021.
The grouping has expanded well beyond its original configuration and now comprises Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.
Its partner countries include Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
India’s programme during the year has covered three broad pillars — political and security cooperation, economic and financial engagement, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The focus now moves to what the leaders can agree on in New Delhi as India attempts to translate a year of meetings into outcomes acceptable across an increasingly diverse BRICS.
