18th BRICS Summit Opens at Bharat Mandapam Under India's Chairship

🗞️ Why in News The 18th BRICS Summit opens at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 12 to 13 September 2026, hosted by India, which has held the rotating BRICS Chairship since 2026, having succeeded Brazil on 1 January 2026. The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed the theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, and released the attendee list, which includes Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Egypt), Prabowo Subianto (Indonesia), Masoud Pezeshkian (Iran) and Abiy Ahmed (Ethiopia) among the members, alongside partner-country invitees Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus), Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (Kazakhstan) and Anwar Ibrahim (Malaysia).

The Summit in One Table

From BRIC to BRICS-Plus: A Grouping Grown Wider

BRIC as an acronym was coined by Jim O’Neill at Goldman Sachs in 2001, forecasting the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as major economies. The grouping first materialised diplomatically at the BRIC Foreign Ministers meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly in 2006. The first BRIC Leaders’ Summit was held at Yekaterinburg, Russia on 16 June 2009. South Africa joined at the 3rd Summit in Sanya, China (2011), giving the grouping its now-familiar S.

The 2023 Johannesburg Summit decided on a first wave of expansion; the 2024 Kazan Summit effectively confirmed the enlarged membership. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE have been full members since 2024, their accession taking effect on 1 January 2024. Indonesia was inducted in January 2025. Saudi Arabia’s status is genuinely ambiguous: it was invited to join in 2023, has attended as a partner and participated in some ministerial tracks, but has not formally deposited an instrument of membership; Riyadh publicly frames its position as continued deliberation.

The result, in 2026, is a ten-member BRICS covering roughly 45 per cent of world population, 35 per cent of global GDP in PPP terms and a decisive share of global energy production.

The New Delhi Agenda

India’s Chairship priorities, as reflected in the Sherpa track and the summit theme, cluster around four pillars.

Resilience. Reform of the international financial architecture, expanded local-currency settlement, contingency-reserve utilisation, sovereign-debt restructuring frameworks, and reinsurance mechanisms for the Global South.

Innovation. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) cooperation, biotech and pharma commons, AI governance for developing economies, and the operationalisation of a BRICS start-up bridge.

Cooperation. Reform of multilateralism, including UNSC composition, WTO reinstatement of the Appellate Body, and coordinated positions on climate-finance and Loss and Damage.

Sustainability. Ecological transition finance, biodiversity commitments, mangrove and coastal ecosystems, and lifestyle-based mitigation frameworks like LiFE.

The New Development Bank in the New Delhi Frame

The New Development Bank (NDB) is the BRICS-created multilateral development bank, headquartered in Shanghai and established under an intergovernmental agreement signed at the Fortaleza Summit in 2014; the bank commenced operations in 2015. The first President was India’s K V Kamath (2015-2020). The current President is Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil, appointed in 2023.

The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), also established in 2014, is a currency-swap-and-support facility totalling USD 100 billion; it complements, rather than substitutes for, the IMF.

Partner Countries and BRICS-Plus

The BRICS-Plus format, active since the 2017 Xiamen Summit and formalised at Kazan (2024), invites leaders of major developing economies and neighbours of the host to a plenary side. The 2026 partner-country invitees include Belarus, Kazakhstan and Malaysia; the composition reflects Central Asian outreach and India’s Act East posture.

UPSC Relevance

GS Paper 2. International groupings involving India or affecting India’s interests; the reform of the international financial architecture; India’s neighbourhood policy.

GS Paper 3. International trade and finance; the role of MDBs in development finance.

The Mains framing. BRICS is India’s principal non-Western multilateral vehicle: it lets India shape agenda on reform of the SDR, climate finance and digital public infrastructure while retaining strategic autonomy. India’s Chairship year is the leverage window to institutionalise DPI cooperation and to push for a credible local-currency settlement architecture without over-committing to any de-dollarisation rhetoric that would strain relations with the US and its financial system.

A question worth preparing. “The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi tests whether an expanded BRICS-Plus can still act coherently on reform of the international financial architecture. Discuss with reference to India’s Chairship priorities. (250 words)”

The counterpoint to hold. BRICS-Plus is now large enough that consensus is harder to reach; the theme of “resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability” is deliberately broad because narrow themes divide the room. India’s task is to convert breadth into concrete deliverables (NDB co-financing, DPI compact, climate-finance floor) that survive the summit’s photo-op.

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

Prelims, statement-ready facts:

• The 18th BRICS Summit is at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 12 to 13 September 2026; India’s Chairship began 1 January 2026, succeeding Brazil.
• Ten BRICS members in 2026: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the UAE.
• The acronym BRIC was coined by Jim O’Neill in 2001; the first BRIC FM meeting was on the UNGA margins in 2006; the first leaders’ summit was at Yekaterinburg on 16 June 2009.
• South Africa joined at the 3rd Summit (Sanya, China, 2011); Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE joined in January 2024; Indonesia in January 2025.
• Summit theme: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
• New Development Bank (NDB): established under 2014 Fortaleza agreement, operational 2015, HQ Shanghai; first President K V Kamath (India), current President Dilma Rousseff (Brazil).
• BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA): USD 100 billion currency-swap facility, established 2014.

Prelims, the traps:

• Saudi Arabia is not a confirmed full member in 2026; it was invited in 2023 but has not formally acceded. Do not assume it as a BRICS member in Prelims.
• The first BRIC summit was at Yekaterinburg (2009), NOT at Fortaleza; Fortaleza (2014) is where the NDB and CRA were established.
• NDB is headquartered in Shanghai, not Beijing.
• K V Kamath was the founding President of the NDB (2015-2020), not of the CRA; the CRA is not an institution with a president, it is a currency-swap arrangement.
• Argentina was invited to join in 2023 but declined after the change of government; do not include Argentina in the 2026 BRICS.

Mains, arguments and keywords:

• BRICS as reform-of-multilateralism vehicle: SDR issuance, IMF quota reform, UNSC composition, WTO Appellate Body.
• Local-currency settlement without de-dollarisation: BRICS Pay, cross-border UPI linkages, RTGS interoperability.
• DPI export as India’s soft-power lever within BRICS: Aadhaar, UPI, MOSIP as reference architecture.
• NDB as regional MDB alternative: co-financing with existing MDBs, GIFT City regional office as India-hosted operational node.
• Climate finance, Loss and Damage, and BRICS’s role in the G77 coordination.
• Keywords: BRICS-Plus, NDB, CRA, DPI, LiFE, Global South, strategic autonomy.

Interview, be ready for:

• “Does BRICS-Plus dilute India’s leverage inside the grouping?” Enlargement dilutes voting weight in principle, but the grouping operates by consensus, so India retains veto-equivalent influence on any concrete commitment. The trade-off is between agenda-setting reach (which widens) and speed of decision (which slows).
• “Is BRICS a de-dollarisation project?” India’s position is that BRICS is a settlement-diversification project, not a de-dollarisation project. Local-currency settlement lowers transaction cost and manages sanction-risk exposure; it does not aim to replace the US dollar as reserve.
• “What is the difference between NDB and CRA?” NDB is a multilateral development bank funding infrastructure and sustainable development; CRA is a currency-swap facility for short-term balance-of-payments support. Different instruments, different maturities.
• “How does India balance BRICS and QUAD memberships?” India’s strategic autonomy doctrine treats plurilateral memberships as issue-specific: BRICS for financial-architecture reform, QUAD for Indo-Pacific stability. They are not substitutes.

Sources: MEA, PIB, NDB, GKToday

Source: 18th BRICS Summit Opens at Bharat Mandapam Under India's Chairship — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs