Overview
- The 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit will be held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026, under India’s chairship and the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is officially confirmed to attend while Russian President Vladimir Putin is reported to be coming and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected but not formally confirmed.
- India has run a year-long chairship with more than 350 meetings and has pushed practical initiatives across trade, digital public infrastructure, MSME finance, agriculture and energy under four pillars of resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
- Diplomatic splits have complicated consensus building: BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi could not agree a full joint statement, with the Iran–UAE rift cited as a key source of disagreement and the New Development Bank and payment-linkage plans still facing funding and governance limits.
- Delhi has rolled out heavy security and transport measures for the summit including DGCA flying restrictions and traffic diversions, and the summit’s outcomes — notably any New Delhi Declaration on UN and financial-institution reform — will indicate how far the bloc can turn expanded membership into concrete cooperation.