BRICS 2026: Why the New Delhi Summit Matters for India as Two Wars Test the Bloc's Unity

New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit at Bharat Mandapam this weekend, India is attempting something far harder than hosting a diplomatic gathering -- holding together an 11-nation bloc whose members sit on opposite sides of two ongoing wars.

The two-day summit, running September 12–13, caps a year-long Indian chairship built around the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability." It arrives at a moment the bloc has rarely faced before: BRICS members Iran and the UAE are effectively on opposing sides of the West Asia conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, while Russia's war in Ukraine continues to strain the group's other major power, Moscow. 

Analysts tracking the bloc observed that tensions heading into this summit are sharper than at last year's gathering in Rio de Janeiro, which took place soon after the 2025 "12-Day War" against Iran.

A Chair Under Pressure

India took over the rotating BRICS presidency on January 1, 2026 -- its fourth turn at the helm after 2012, 2016 and 2021 -- and has run more than 350 meetings across over 25 Indian cities this year, spanning foreign affairs, finance, trade, agriculture, health, energy, technology and security tracks. That groundwork was meant to deliver a smooth, consensus-driven summit. 

Instead, it collided with geopolitics: a BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi in May failed to produce a joint communique on West Asia, forcing India to issue a chair's statement instead. Russian officials have publicly acknowledged that differences between Iran and the UAE were complicating preparation of the final New Delhi Declaration, due for release at the summit's close.

The fault lines are real. Brazil, China and Russia have condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, while India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have criticised Iranian missile strikes on Gulf military bases -- a split that produced deadlock rather than a unified bloc position. 

On Gaza, however, BRICS foreign ministers found firmer common ground, condemning civilian casualties, forced displacement and the use of starvation as a method of war, and calling for an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire alongside the withdrawal of Israeli forces and continued support for UNRWA.

Why It Matters for India

This is precisely where the summit's significance for New Delhi lies. With Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chinese President Xi Jinping all in New Delhi -- leaders of states directly at war or in direct confrontation with Western powers -- India is positioned as one of the few capitals with working relationships across Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Kyiv and the Gulf simultaneously.

Foreign policy analysts describe this as a "peacemaker" posture unique to India's standing in the bloc, one that allows Modi to hold separate bilateral talks with Putin and Pezeshkian on the summit's first day and with Xi on the second -- conversations that touch on ceasefire terms, Black Sea trade-corridor security and Gulf stability without India itself being party to any of the conflicts.

For a developing economy that depends heavily on energy imports, food security and stable supply chains, prolonged war in two regions simultaneously is not an abstract diplomatic problem -- it feeds inflation, disrupts fertiliser and crude supplies, and raises borrowing costs across the Global South. That is the practical stake India is managing as chair, distinct from taking sides in the underlying conflicts.

The Deliverables on the Table

Beyond crisis diplomacy, India has steered the chairship toward tangible economic outcomes rather than symbolic declarations. Among the concrete tracks expected to feature in the New Delhi Declaration:

• Cross-border payments and local currencies: India is pushing greater use of national currencies in intra-BRICS trade and interoperability between central bank digital currency systems, reducing reliance on the dollar-denominated SWIFT network -- but explicitly stopping short of backing a single BRICS-wide payment system or common currency that could invite US tariff retaliation.
• New Development Bank: Members have backed an expanded role for the NDB in infrastructure and sustainable-development financing, including more local-currency lending and efforts to mobilise private capital.
• Supply chains and trade: A proposed BRICS Logistics Supply-Chain Cooperation Framework and a 2026–2030 Global Value Chains Action Plan aim to shore up connectivity after repeated shocks from sanctions and regional conflict.
• Energy, agriculture and health: Cooperation on smart grids, sustainable aviation fuel, digital agriculture and disease surveillance -- areas India has framed as "practical" cooperation rather than geopolitical positioning.
• Global governance reform: A renewed push for restructuring the UN Security Council, IMF and World Bank to better represent developing nations -- a long-standing Indian and Global South demand.

The Test Ahead

Whether the New Delhi Declaration achieves full consensus on West Asia and Ukraine -- or once again settles for a chair's statement papering over disagreement -- will be the clearest signal of whether an expanded, more divided BRICS can still function as a unified voice for the Global South. 

For India, the outcome shapes not just the legacy of its chairship but its broader claim to be a credible bridge-builder between rival powers at a moment when traditional multilateral forums are struggling to produce results of their own.

While the world closely watches developments at the 18th BRICS summit and awaits the final outcome with bated breath, the presence of key world leaders in New Delhi undoubtedly signals a major diplomatic milestone for India.

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