Strategic autonomy in motion as India hosts Brics summit
India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi in 2026, marking the grouping's 20th anniversary since its first formal summit in 2009
The summit theme is "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" (BRICS pillars for India's chairship year)
India is chairing BRICS for the fourth time (previously 2012, 2016, 2021), positioning itself as a bridge between the expanded grouping's Global South priorities and its own policy of engaging major powers — the US, Russia, and China — without formal alignment with any bloc
Discussions at the summit span financial architecture reform (Bretton Woods institutions and IMF quota formulas), technological cooperation, supply chain resilience, and energy security
The summit takes place against a backdrop of complex bilateral dynamics: an ongoing India-China border-talks recalibration and India's continuing defence and energy relationship with Russia, alongside trade and strategic engagement with the US
BRICS — Origin, Membership, and Expansion
BRICS began as an informal grouping identified in a 2001 Goldman Sachs economic paper (originally "BRIC" — Brazil, Russia, India, China) and held its first formal summit on 16 June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. South Africa joined in September 2010, making it "BRICS." The grouping has since undergone major expansion, evolving from an economic acronym into a expanding multilateral platform for Global South cooperation.
India's fourth chairship year (after 2012, 2016, 2021) comes as BRICS has grown from a four-country informal bloc into an 11-member organisation with an expanding partner-country tier, making coordination and consensus-building considerably more complex — a key reason India frames its 2026 agenda around institutional reform.
India's Strategic Autonomy Doctrine
Strategic autonomy refers to India's foreign policy principle of retaining independent decision-making capacity in international relations rather than aligning permanently with any single power bloc. It is the contemporary evolution of India's Cold War-era Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) policy, adapted to a multipolar world where India simultaneously engages competing powers on separate tracks.
Hosting BRICS while simultaneously managing a Quad partnership with the US, defence and energy ties with Russia, and a cautiously improving relationship with China exemplifies India's practice of engaging multiple, sometimes rival, powers on parallel bilateral tracks without binding alliance commitments.
Global South Leadership and Institutional Reform
"Global South" refers to developing and emerging economies, largely in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, that seek greater representation in global governance institutions historically dominated by developed nations. India has positioned itself as a leading voice for Global South reform demands, particularly around IMF/World Bank quota reform and UN Security Council expansion.
Key Details
- India convened the "Voice of Global South Summit" in January 2023 and January 2024 ahead of its G20 presidency
- IMF quota reform demands center on increasing the voting share of emerging economies, last substantially revised in 2010 (14th General Review of Quotas)
- India has consistently sought a permanent UN Security Council seat, citing the need to reform a body whose permanent membership (US, UK, France, Russia, China) has been unchanged since 1945
- The New Development Bank (NDB) was created in 2014 partly to reduce dependence on World Bank/IMF conditionalities for BRICS and partner countries
India's 2026 BRICS chairship agenda explicitly links financial-architecture reform (IMF quota formulas, Bretton Woods institutions) to its broader Global South leadership positioning, using the summit platform to advance demands it has raised in other forums like the G20 and UN.
- BRICS: first formal summit 16 June 2009 (Yekaterinburg); South Africa joined September 2010
- Current full membership: 11 countries (as of 2026)
- 2024 expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE (effective 1 January 2024)
- 2025 additions: Indonesia (January), Saudi Arabia (July)
- India's BRICS chairship years: 2012, 2016, 2021, 2026 (fourth time)
- 2026 summit theme: "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability"
- New Development Bank (NDB): established 2014, headquartered in Shanghai