Overview

• The summit concluded with a 126-point Rio declaration rejecting unilateral trade barriers, defending multilateralism and calling for an immediate, permanent Gaza ceasefire with full Israeli withdrawal.
• The threat of 10% tariffs on BRICS-aligned nations issued by President Trump prompted a united rebuke from Lula da Silva, who asserted that “the world has changed” and reaffirmed sovereign equality among member states.
• China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were absent in person—Xi stayed away, and Putin joined remotely due to an ICC arrest warrant—yet BRICS consensus endured on key trade and geopolitical issues.
• Lula da Silva secured a commitment to task the New Development Bank with studying a common commercial currency and to boost transactions in local currencies as a step toward reducing reliance on the US dollar.
• BRICS leaders closed the summit pledging to implement follow-up financial autonomy measures, pursue institutional reforms and coordinate preparations for the bloc’s next leadership transition.