Overview
- The 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit will take place at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Sept. 12–13 with closed-door member meetings, an innovation exhibition, a leaders’ photo, a joint tree-planting and an open session with partner countries.
- India is using its 2026 chairship, built around four pillars — resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability — to propose concrete measures such as a BRICS invoice discounting mechanism for MSME trade finance, a BRICS incubator network for startups, a digital agriculture network, and energy and smart-grid pilot cooperation.
- Delhi authorities have put extensive security and mobility plans in place, including traffic controls on more than 35 roads, airport preparations and temporary aerial restrictions, to manage leader movements and increased international flights.
- Diplomatic fault lines persist: BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi produced only a Chair’s Statement rather than a joint communiqué, with the Iran–UAE disagreement over the West Asia crisis cited as a key obstacle to unified political messaging.
- Economic asymmetries complicate the agenda because intra-BRICS trade has grown unevenly; India’s imports from BRICS rose far faster than its exports, widening a merchandise deficit and underscoring New Delhi’s push for fairer market access, stronger local-currency linkages and a better-funded New Development Bank.