BRICS Summit 2026: India’s Chairship Centres on Four Pillars of Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability

New Delhi: As India finishes its 2026 chairmanship of the expanded grouping of major emerging economies and developing nations, New Delhi is set to host the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit on September 12-13. The presidency, which began on January 1, 2026, is guided by the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”, deploying a human-centric approach across its core pillars to reinforce institutional strength and support sustainable growth.

Under the resilience pillar, the chairship strives to fortify economic, social, and institutional frameworks, ensuring member states are better prepared to address global uncertainties, supply-chain interruptions, health crises, and climate hazards through robust, adaptable systems designed to encourage inclusive progress.

The innovation pillar focuses on leveraging emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, and fintech, to refine service delivery, foster future-ready economic expansion, and promote joint knowledge-sharing and technological cooperation across the bloc.

Through the cooperation pillar, India aims to deepen ties among members by enhancing policy alignment, development finance, trade facilitation, and joint engagement on multilateral governance reforms, placing practical collaboration and people-focused partnerships at the centre of the group's widening scope.

Meanwhile, the sustainability pillar drives collective action on climate mitigation, green finance, energy transition, and sustainable development while respecting individual national developmental priorities, placing these issues at the core of dialogues across various ministerial and working-level forums throughout the presidency year.

The grouping has evolved into a vital platform for diplomatic and political alignment among major emerging markets and developing countries, currently comprising 11 full members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Additionally, a partner-country framework has been introduced, encompassing Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Collectively, this expanded alliance holds significant demographic and economic influence, representing approximately 49.5 per cent of the global population, 40 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), and 26 per cent of international trade.

The alliance originally began as BRIC, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, formalised during the inaugural gathering of BRIC Foreign Ministers held alongside the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2006. The inaugural BRIC Leaders’ Summit was subsequently hosted in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined the bloc in 2011, transforming BRIC into BRICS, before the group entered a subsequent expansion phase that saw Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE assume full membership in January 2024, followed by Indonesia in January 2025.

The growth was complemented by the partner-country category established at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan in 2024, with nine countries joining in 2025 before Vietnam became the tenth partner nation. Despite an expanding agenda, institutional collaboration across the alliance remains structured around three foundational pillars: Political and Security; Economy and Finance; and Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges.

The Political and Security pillar addresses international peace, counter-terrorism, global governance, and reform of the multilateral system, whereas the Economy and Finance pillar covers trade, investment, financial cooperation, development finance, and global economic architecture.

The Cultural and People-to-People dimension builds societal ties through educational, youth, sports, cultural, and tourism initiatives. Over time, this mechanism has widened to encompass climate policy, food and energy security, agricultural cooperation, telecommunications, employment, trade, World Trade Organisation engagement, and joint security responses.

The upcoming New Delhi summit follows the 17th BRICS Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 6-7, 2025, under Brazil’s chairship, which focused on Global South cooperation, inclusive governance, global health, climate action, artificial intelligence governance, trade, and financial mechanism efficiency during the first high-level assembly of the broadened grouping.

For India, the 2026 chairship marks its fourth tenure heading BRICS, following previous terms in 2012, 2016, and 2021. India last held the chair in 2021, hosting the 13th BRICS Summit virtually on September 9 under the theme “BRICS@15: Intra-BRICS Cooperation for Continuity, Consolidation and Consensus.”

During the 2021 chairship, New Delhi organised over 150 ministerial and sector-specific events focused on reforming the multilateral system, strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation, deploying digital tools for the Sustainable Development Goals, and enhancing people-to-people exchanges. These priorities were enshrined in the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the 13th summit.

Carrying forward this legacy, India's 2026 presidency bridges established reform goals with expanded priorities, placing resilience, innovation, and sustainability at the heart of the bloc's collective agenda as leaders convene in New Delhi to assess the group's evolving global role and chart the path forward. 

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