Overview
- Leaders at the two-day BRICS summit on Sept. 12–13 unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration after intensive late-stage negotiations hosted by India.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping in which he urged ties be guided by 'mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity' and stressed that border peace is essential for deeper cooperation.
- The declaration used generalised language on the West Asia conflict while explicitly naming and condemning the Pahalgam terror attack, a development Indian officials hailed as a diplomatic win.
- India pushed a Global South development agenda during the summit, promoting its digital public infrastructure models such as Aadhaar and UPI and highlighting the New Development Bank as a vehicle for development finance.
- Commentators warned the text is largely nonbinding and flagged a double standard over denunciations of unilateral sanctions versus member practices like export controls, leaving implementation and financing of projects as the immediate tests for BRICS; Bangladesh has publicly signalled a desire to 'reset' bilateral ties with India.