Brics summit in Delhi on September 12-13: Agenda, schedule and other details
The 18th BRICS Summit will be held over two days, September 12-13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
The summit concludes India's year-long BRICS chairship, held under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
The agenda covers trade and economic cooperation, digital technology, energy security, and reform of global governance institutions.
Ancillary "Track II" events — business, academic and other stakeholder forums — were held through the year in more than 25 Indian cities as part of India's chairship calendar, feeding into the leaders' summit.
The summit is expected to conclude with a joint leaders' declaration, the customary outcome document at BRICS summits.
Bharat Mandapam: India's Repeat Multilateral Summit Venue
Bharat Mandapam, the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, was inaugurated in 2023 and first gained prominence as the venue for the G20 Leaders' Summit in September 2023 under India's G20 presidency. Its selection again for the 2026 BRICS Summit makes it the site of India's two largest multilateral summit hostings within three years.
Key Details
- G20 New Delhi Summit: September 9-10, 2023, also held at Bharat Mandapam.
- The venue's redevelopment was completed ahead of the 2023 G20 presidency year.
- Repeated use signals India's positioning of the venue as its standard infrastructure for hosting head-of-state-level multilateral summits.
Hosting BRICS 2026 at the same venue as G20 2023 draws a direct institutional comparison between India's G20 presidency (a broader 19-member-plus-EU/AU grouping) and its BRICS chairship (an 11-member grouping) — both examples of India's rotating-chair multilateral hosting role.
BRICS Summit Architecture: Leaders' Track and Sherpa/Track-II Forums
Like other major multilateral groupings (e.g., G20), BRICS summits are preceded through the chair's calendar year by a structured set of ministerial, sherpa-level, and stakeholder meetings — including a Business Forum/Business Council, an Academic Forum or Think Tank Council, and sector-specific ministerial meetings (finance, foreign affairs, trade) — that feed inputs into the leaders' summit and its final declaration.
Key Details
- India's 2026 chairship year included over 350 BRICS-related meetings across more than 25 cities before the leaders' summit.
- The "Sherpa track" (senior officials preparing summit outcomes) is distinct from the "Finance track" (finance ministers and central bank governors) — a structure mirrored in G20 architecture.
- Outcome documents from such forums are inputs to, but not the same as, the leaders' joint declaration.
The September 12-13 leaders' summit is the culminating event of a year-long structured process, not a standalone meeting — a distinction useful for questions on how multilateral summit diplomacy is organised.
Summit Outcome Documents: Declarations, Communiqués and Their Non-Binding Nature
Multilateral summits such as BRICS typically conclude with a joint leaders' declaration — a consensus political statement reflecting shared priorities and commitments — rather than a binding treaty. Such declarations are analogous to a G20 Leaders' Declaration or a joint communiqué: they carry political weight and set cooperative agendas but do not create enforceable international legal obligations in the way a ratified treaty does.
Key Details
- BRICS declarations are adopted by consensus among all full members; there is no majority-vote override.
- Past BRICS declarations are named after the host city/summit (e.g., the 2016 Goa Declaration, during India's second chairship).
- Distinguish: Joint Declaration/Communiqué (political commitment) vs Treaty/Convention (legally binding, requires ratification) vs MoU (narrower, often bilateral, non-binding).
Any outcome statement from the 2026 New Delhi summit will function as a political consensus document defining BRICS's shared priorities for the following year, not a binding legal instrument.
- Summit dates: September 12-13, 2026.
- Venue: Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi — same venue as the 2023 G20 Leaders' Summit.
- India's 2026 BRICS chairship theme: "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
- Meetings held during India's 2026 chairship year (pre-summit): 350+, across 25+ cities.
- This is India's 4th BRICS chairship (after 2012, 2016, 2021) and the bloc's 18th leaders' summit overall (first summit: 2009).