BRICS meets in India: What’s on the agenda, why it matters

Al Jazeera | Priyanka Shankar

The 18th annual BRICS Summit, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting in New Delhi from September 12 to 13, 2026, will bring together more than a dozen world leaders to discuss global economic problems and the severe geopolitical conflicts. The summit is taking place at a time when the United States and Israel are engaging in a growing war against Iran and Russia is still at war in Ukraine.

An enlarged group consisting of eleven members—accounting for forty per cent of the global gross domestic product—wants to secure its supply chains and set up cross-border payment systems as a means of going around Western sanctions. However, disagreements within the group endanger this common goal. The ongoing border disagreements between India and China, together with the tensions existing between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, make it difficult to produce a single, unified declaration. Moreover, the Houthi forces in Yemen are still attacking infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni government has recently lost control of the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait. The summit offers Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping a vital opportunity to make use of the Global South's policy of hedging.

Comment

India finds itself in a difficult diplomatic position if it is to preserve its strategic independence when it hosts the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi. Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses the forum to establish India as a prominent voice of the Global South, the attendance of both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin makes it harder for New Delhi to align itself with Washington. The summit therefore requires India to handle its existing disputes with China while at the same time developing its growing security ties within the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

The way in which India carries out this balancing act is by pursuing a two-pronged policy that involves engaging Beijing on a multilateral basis while at the same time keeping a strong military position along the Line of Actual Control. In order to protect its economy from Western sanctions without entirely supporting the currency-devaluation programme promoted by both Moscow and Beijing, New Delhi takes part in BRICS-led measures such as trade settlements in local currencies. This kind of dual-track diplomacy allows India to retain its strategic independence while at the same time not compromising its bilateral defence relationships with the United States.

Strategic Question for Discussion

What effect does India's involvement in the 18th BRICS Summit have on its capacity to retain a credible military deterrent along the Line of Actual Control, and which factor is more important to Beijing's strategic calculations?

The evidence currently available indicates that Beijing treats multilateral economic cooperation separately from territorial disputes, which means that India's attendance at the New Delhi summit is not likely to alleviate the tactical tensions along the Line of Actual Control. I believe that China sees India's involvement as a practical economic measure rather than as a geopolitical gesture. As a result, the military stand-off along the border is likely to continue regardless of any diplomatic advances made during the summit.

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