NEW DELHI: India is set to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026, marking a pivotal moment for the rapidly evolving intergovernmental forum of major emerging market economies and developing nations.
Initially established as the BRIC alliance comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which convened its first Foreign Ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in 2006 and held its inaugural summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009, the group expanded to BRICS following South Africa’s admission in 2011.
The grouping has since undergone a transformative expansion, welcoming Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as full members in January 2024, followed by Indonesia in January 2025. Today, featuring 11 full member states alongside an expanding array of partner nations, the alliance commands significant global economic and diplomatic influence.
Guided by India’s 2026 chairship theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” New Delhi’s vision focuses on steering the agenda beyond routine political coordination towards tangible, practical cooperation across commerce, agriculture, healthcare, energy, digital technology, urban development, small enterprise empowerment, startups, climate action, and cultural exchanges.
India’s chairship framework is organised around four primary pillars, starting with Resilience, which aims to protect institutions, societies, and economies from supply-chain disruptions, health crises, geopolitical shocks, and climate risks.
Innovation forms the second pillar, concentrating on the deployment of artificial intelligence, financial technologies, digital public infrastructure, and data-driven systems.
The third pillar, Cooperation, focuses on broadening trade flows, institutional linkages, development financing, and economic policy alignment. The fourth pillar, Sustainability, seeks to promote global climate action, green finance, energy transitions, and sustainable development, ensuring that established mechanisms deliver enduring operational benefits beyond the summit.
In economic governance and trade, the alliance has advanced the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2030 while reaffirming support for a robust multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. To fortify trade corridors, member states have adopted the BRICS Global Value Chains Action Plan 2026-2030, alongside guiding principles designed to assess export-oriented micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Placing small businesses at the centre of inclusive growth and employment creation, India has proposed a BRICS invoice discounting mechanism to address trade finance needs. This is further complemented by the proposed BRICS MSME Cooperation Portal, intended to connect technology centres, financial institutions, training bodies, and policymakers across member nations.
To build an integrated innovation ecosystem, India’s agenda includes the BRICS Incubator Network to link startup incubators across member economies. New Delhi has additionally proposed the BRICS Startup Innovation Fund to catalyse early-stage and growth financing for promising enterprises.
Agriculture showcases India’s efforts to deliver direct societal benefits, led by the BRICS Network on Digital Agriculture, where India is coordinating the initial phase to integrate artificial intelligence, geospatial tools, and digital public infrastructure into farming. This is accompanied by the Global Forum on Farmers’ Rights in Seed Systems to promote dialogue on traditional knowledge, alongside the “BRICS AGRIN – Agro-Inputs, Genetic Resources and Information Network” initiative to strengthen cooperation in seeds and agricultural inputs.
In the health sector, the unanimous adoption of the 16th BRICS Health Ministerial Declaration in Chandigarh reinforced commitments towards universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, digital health tools, and affordable medicines.
Expanding cooperation beyond infectious diseases, India has led the creation of mechanisms for mental-wellness cooperation coordinated through NIMHANS.
Energy security remains a key focus given the alliance’s combination of major energy producers, consumers, and industrialising economies. Following the BRICS Energy Ministers’ Meeting in Gurugram, member nations adopted guiding principles on smart grids and launched the BRICS Digital Centre of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage to foster pilot projects, technical exchanges, and regulatory cooperation across renewable energy, hydrogen, biofuels, critical minerals, and carbon-capture technologies.
Climate resilience has been integrated into several practical initiatives, including the adoption of Voluntary Principles for Climate-Resilient Urban Infrastructure. To support sustainable urban development, India has proposed the BRICS Urban Research and Knowledge Network for institutional research and peer learning, alongside the BRICS Urban Mobility Hub to facilitate sustainable public transport projects.
Digital cooperation spans multiple domains through the proposed BRICS Digital Public Infrastructure Repository, aimed at sharing knowledge and testing scalable DPI solutions. To tackle international logistics vulnerabilities, the proposed BRICS Logistics Supply-Chain Cooperation Framework works alongside the BRICS Global Value Chains Action Plan 2026-2030 to enhance trade connectivity, supply-chain resilience, and manufacturing integration.
Human capital development is being championed through BRICS CONNECT, a cooperative network focused on labour-market intelligence, skill forecasting, and digital employment services. This is complemented by the BRICS Youth Cooperation Framework 2026, women’s digital capacity initiatives, student and faculty academic exchanges, and collaborative efforts on traditional knowledge systems.
Through strategic foreign-policy leadership, India’s chairship aims to align the enlarged membership around practical, development-focused outcomes, reinforcing the grouping’s role as a constructive platform for the Global South and driving meaningful reforms in international governance.
