Explained | When and where is BRICS Summit 2026? Its importance? Why it matters for India even more amid US-Iran war?
India is scheduled to host the BRICS Summit 2026 in New Delhi on 12-13 September, at Bharat Mandapam, under the theme "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability"
India assumed the BRICS chairmanship on 1 January 2026, succeeding Brazil; this is India's fourth chairmanship after 2012, 2016 and 2021
The lead-up to the summit has been complicated by the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which has strained consensus among BRICS members — a BRICS foreign ministers' meeting hosted by India in May 2026 concluded without a joint statement due to disagreement over how to characterise the conflict
The summit brings together an expanded 11-member bloc that now spans founding members, South Africa, and the four states that joined in 2024, positioning India to broker consensus among an increasingly diverse membership on trade, energy and technology issues
BRICS — Origin, Expansion and Structure
BRICS began as an informal grouping identified by an economic acronym before evolving into a coordinated multilateral platform representing major emerging economies and, more recently, the Global South.
The consensus-based, chair-driven structure is precisely why the May 2026 foreign ministers' meeting could end without a joint statement — any single member's objection can block a unified text, and the expanded, more heterogeneous membership makes such deadlocks more likely.
India's BRICS Chairmanship and the New Development Bank
India has used its recurring BRICS chairmanships to push institution-building, most significantly the proposal that became the bloc's flagship financial institution.
Key Details
- India first proposed a BRICS development bank at the 4th BRICS Summit, held in New Delhi in 2012; the New Development Bank (NDB) was formally established at the 6th Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 15 July 2014, and began operations in July 2014
- The NDB is headquartered in Shanghai, China; its first President (2015-2020) was K.V. Kamath of India, reflecting India's institutional weight within the bank despite the Shanghai headquarters
- India's four chairmanships (2012, 2016, 2021, 2026) each occurred at different stages of the bloc's evolution — pre-expansion (2012, 2016, 2021) versus the current post-2024 expanded, 11-member bloc (2026)
The 2026 chairmanship is qualitatively different from India's earlier terms because India must now build consensus across a larger, more geopolitically diverse membership that includes states directly involved in or affected by the ongoing West Asia conflict.
BRICS Consensus Mechanism Under Strain — The US-Iran-Israel Conflict
The BRICS grouping operates on consensus, meaning joint statements require agreement from every member; the widening BRICS membership since 2024 has made reaching consensus on contentious geopolitical issues, such as an active regional conflict, significantly harder.
Key Details
- The May 2026 BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi was held against the backdrop of the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran and its regional fallout, including effects on Gulf energy supplies
- Reports of the meeting indicate a divide between Iran, seeking language attributing the conflict's initiation to the United States and Israel, and Gulf-facing members seeking language addressing Iranian strikes on Gulf states — a disagreement that prevented a joint statement
- This is not the first instance of intra-BRICS division over an active conflict; the bloc's expanded membership since 2024 (including both Iran and the UAE, states with divergent positions on Gulf security) has structurally increased the range of positions that must be reconciled for consensus
As chair, India's diplomatic task at the September summit is to manage exactly this kind of divide — the article's framing of "why it matters for India even more" stems from the risk that a chair unable to produce a unified outcome sees its own diplomatic standing affected, even though the underlying dispute lies between other member states.
India's Position at BRICS vis-à-vis China and Russia
BRICS is one of the few multilateral platforms where India, China and Russia sit together as full members alongside emerging and developing economies, making it a distinct forum from India's other groupings such as the Quad or SCO.
Key Details
- Unlike the Quad (a four-country Indo-Pacific security-oriented grouping with the US, Japan and Australia) or the SCO (a Eurasian security- and connectivity-focused body), BRICS' stated focus is economic cooperation, financial architecture reform, and Global South representation
- India has consistently supported multipolarity through BRICS while resisting characterisations of the bloc as an anti-Western bloc, distinguishing its BRICS engagement from more security-aligned partnerships
- With the 2024 expansion, BRICS' combined share of global GDP (PPP terms) and population has grown to represent a substantial portion of the world's emerging and developing economies, strengthening its claimed role as a Global South platform
Being at "the same table as China and Russia" while also engaging Gulf energy producers and African/Latin American economies is precisely what gives India's 2026 chairmanship its described significance — a single platform spanning multiple, sometimes competing, geopolitical blocs.
- BRICS Summit 2026: New Delhi, 12-13 September, Bharat Mandapam venue; theme "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability"
- India's BRICS chairmanship: assumed 1 January 2026; fourth term after 2012, 2016, 2021
- First BRIC summit: Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2009; South Africa joined 2010
- 2024 expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE admitted (Saudi Arabia invited, not formally joined; Argentina declined) — current full membership: 11 states
- New Development Bank: proposed by India at 2012 New Delhi summit, established 15 July 2014 (6th Summit, Fortaleza), headquartered in Shanghai; first President K.V. Kamath (India, 2015-2020)
- BRICS foreign ministers' meeting, New Delhi, May 2026: concluded without a joint statement amid disagreement over the US-Israel-Iran conflict