BRICS just marked two decades as an expanding global bloc, and this year’s summit had extra weight: it was hosted by India, the group’s founding member, at a moment when the alliance’s internal differences are increasingly visible alongside its shared ambitions.
The Basics
The 18th BRICS Summit was held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi from September 12–13, 2026, under India’s 2026 BRICS chairship, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi serving as chair. India’s chairship theme was “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” reflecting what officials described as a people-centric approach to the bloc’s agenda. This marked the fourth time India has held the BRICS chairship, having previously done so in 2012, 2016, and 2021.
Who Was in the Room
BRICS has grown considerably from its original four-country core. Delegations came from Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates — the bloc’s eleven full members as of 2026. Ten additional partner countries — Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam — joined the process in 2025, giving the summit a noticeably broader Global South footprint than the BRIC of 2009. Notable attendees this year included Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, alongside leaders from Russia and China.
What Came Out of It
The centerpiece of the summit was the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration, alongside discussions on global-governance reform, Middle East de-escalation, and cooperation on trade, payments, and development. On the geopolitical front, the bloc’s joint declaration called for restraint amid Middle East tensions and stressed the importance of maintaining smooth global trade, supply chains, and energy flows, while also expressing firm opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israel.
Beneath the surface, though, the gathering underscored that BRICS is not a bloc that moves in lockstep. Coverage of the summit noted it arrived as the group marks 20 years since its expansion while facing internal rifts, and reporting from the summit pointed to an atmosphere shaped by ongoing wars and rising tensions with the United States testing the cohesion of the bloc. Member states have historically diverged on how confrontational to be toward Western institutions, how fast to expand, and how to balance ties with the US and EU against South-South cooperation — tensions this summit didn’t resolve so much as manage.
Why It Matters
A few threads worth watching from here:
- Trade and de-dollarization talk continues, but as in past years, expect incremental statements rather than a single dramatic currency announcement.
- The bloc’s growing size is a double-edged sword. More members means more diplomatic weight and a larger combined economy, but also more competing national interests to reconcile — India and China’s rivalry, Gulf states’ balancing act with the US, and so on.
- India’s hosting role is itself notable. Chairing BRICS for a fourth time while also maintaining close ties with Washington puts New Delhi in a genuine balancing act, one commentators flagged explicitly in the run-up to the summit.
The Bottom Line
BRICS in 2026 looks less like a tight political alliance and more like a widening coalition of countries that share an interest in reshaping global governance but don’t always agree on how. The New Delhi Declaration and the Middle East language show the bloc can still find common ground on high-level statements — the harder test is whether that translates into coordinated action on trade, finance, or security in the months ahead.
This post reflects publicly reported developments from the 18th BRICS Summit as of September 2026. As with any live geopolitical story, details and interpretations may continue to evolve.