• BRICS leaders and dignitaries are arriving in India ahead of the commencement of BRICS 2026

New Delhi: India has stepped into the spotlight as host of the latest BRICS Summit, a gathering that has drawn attention worldwide not least because of the confirmed presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping — a visit being closely watched given the complex trajectory of India-China relations in recent years. As New Delhi assumes its chairship of the bloc, the summit arrives at a pivotal moment for an organization that has grown from its original four founding members into a sprawling coalition representing a significant share of the world’s population and economic output.

A Summit Under India’s Chairship

Hosting BRICS gives India a rare diplomatic showcase: a chance to position itself as a bridge between the developed and developing world, while advancing its own ambitions as a leading voice for the Global South. Indian officials have framed the summit’s agenda around inclusive growth, reformed multilateralism, and deeper economic integration among member states — themes that resonate strongly with the government’s broader foreign policy narrative of representing the interests of developing nations on the world stage.

For India, the optics of the summit matter as much as the substance. Welcoming Xi Jinping to Indian soil, alongside other heads of state, offers an opportunity to demonstrate that bilateral tensions — including unresolved border disputes and years of strained trade relations — can coexist with functional multilateral engagement. Analysts note that such high-level visits often serve as pressure valves, allowing two rival powers to manage friction through structured, multilateral settings rather than direct bilateral confrontation alone.

Who Else Is Attending

Beyond China and host nation India, the summit is expected to draw leaders and senior representatives from the other founding BRICS members — Brazil, Russia, and South Africa — along with delegations from the bloc’s expanded membership, which in recent years has grown to include countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, reflecting BRICS’ deliberate push to widen its footprint across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Several other nations that have expressed interest in joining or partnering with the bloc are also anticipated to send observer delegations, underscoring the growing appeal of BRICS as an alternative platform to Western-led institutions.

Core Goals of the Summit

Officials have signaled that this year’s agenda centers on a handful of priorities:

• Reforming global governance institutions, particularly calls for a greater voice for developing nations within bodies like the United Nations Security Council, the IMF, and the World Bank.
• Expanding local-currency trade among member states to reduce dependency on the US dollar in cross-border transactions.
• Strengthening the New Development Bank (NDB), the bloc’s flagship financial institution, to fund infrastructure and development projects across emerging economies.
• Technology and digital cooperation, including discussions on artificial intelligence governance, digital public infrastructure, and cybersecurity frameworks tailored to developing-country needs.
• Climate finance and energy transition, with member states pushing for more equitable funding mechanisms that don’t place a disproportionate burden on lower-income nations.

At the heart of this summit is a broader narrative that BRICS leaders have increasingly leaned into: positioning the bloc as the institutional voice of the Global South. This framing goes beyond economics, touching on questions of sovereignty, historical grievances tied to colonialism, and a desire among member states to chart development paths free from conditions historically attached to Western aid and lending.

India, in particular, has used its chairship to amplify this vision, drawing on its own experience straddling both the developing and increasingly influential economic tiers. The message from New Delhi has been consistent: the Global South is no longer content to be a passive recipient of global rule-making crafted elsewhere, but wants a seat — and a vote — at the table.

Perhaps the most consequential outcome of the summit, beyond any single agreement, is what it signals for South-South cooperation more broadly. BRICS has increasingly functioned as a laboratory for deeper ties between developing nations — trade corridors that bypass traditional Western intermediaries, technology-sharing partnerships, and joint infrastructure financing through vehicles like the New Development Bank.

If the summit produces concrete commitments on local-currency settlement or expanded NDB lending, it could accelerate a broader trend already underway: developing economies trading and investing more with one another, and less through traditional dollar-denominated, Western-centered channels. That shift carries real implications for global trade patterns, currency markets, and the balance of economic power over the coming decade.

At the same time, skeptics caution that BRICS remains a coalition of countries with sharply divergent interests — India and China chief among them — and that summit rhetoric on unity often outpaces the bloc’s ability to act cohesively on contentious issues. Whether this summit marks a genuine turning point for South-South cooperation, or simply another chapter in BRICS’ long-running effort to define its own identity, will likely become clearer only in the months following the leaders’ departure from New Delhi.