BRICS Summit: India reaches out to regional blocs to build wider Global South network
India, hosting the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit in New Delhi (September 12–13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam), has invited major regional groupings of developing economies to outreach/extended sessions to widen BRICS engagement with the Global South.
The groupings invited include the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the African Union (AU), and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
The outreach sessions bring in regional-bloc chairs and partner countries alongside BRICS' own full members, reflecting India's stated framing of its chairship as centred on development, resilience, and reform rather than confrontation with any bloc.
The summit's theme is "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
BRICS: Composition and Expansion
BRICS originated as an acronym coined for emerging economies and evolved into a formal grouping. Its membership has expanded significantly in recent years, changing its composition from an economic forecasting term to a substantial multilateral bloc.
The outreach to GCC, ASEAN, CELAC, AU, and BIMSTEC during India's 2026 chairship follows a precedent set by earlier BRICS hosts (South Africa's Africa Outreach in Durban 2013, Brazil's Latin America outreach in Fortaleza 2014, India's own BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach at Goa 2016) of inviting regional blocs beyond the core membership to broaden the summit's Global South representation.
The "Outreach/Plus" Format in BRICS Diplomacy
BRICS summits have institutionalised a practice of inviting non-member regional organisations and their current chair-states to specific outreach or "BRICS Plus" sessions, distinct from the core leaders' retreat. This allows BRICS to project itself as a platform for the wider developing world rather than a closed club of members.
Key Details
- The practice began with South Africa's BRICS-Africa Outreach at the 2013 Durban Summit.
- India itself pioneered a BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit at Goa in 2016, aligning South Asian regional priorities (counter-terrorism, trade, energy, connectivity) with BRICS discussions.
- For India, BIMSTEC (given India's leadership role in it) and the neighbourhood focus, along with the GCC (a major source of energy imports and diaspora remittances), are of particular strategic weight among the invited blocs.
India's 2026 outreach to five blocs simultaneously (GCC, ASEAN, CELAC, AU, BIMSTEC) is a wider version of this established BRICS practice, reflecting India's ambition to position the summit as a Global South convening point.
Key Regional Blocs Invited — Quick Reference
Each invited bloc is separately testable on its own founding year, membership, and mandate.
Key Details
- GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council): formed 1981; six members — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman.
- ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations): formed 1967 (Bangkok Declaration); ten members in Southeast Asia.
- CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States): founded December 2011, Spanish: "Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños"; includes all Latin American and Caribbean states, excluding the US and Canada.
- AU (African Union): launched 2002, successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, founded 1963); 55 African member states.
- BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation): founded June 6, 1997, in Bangkok; seven members bridging South Asia and Southeast Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand).
These five blocs collectively span Africa, the Gulf, Southeast Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and the Bay of Bengal region — giving India's outreach a genuinely cross-continental Global South footprint at the summit it is hosting.
- 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit: New Delhi, September 12–13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam; theme "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
- BRICS full membership (2026): 11 countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia.
- BRICS Partner countries added in 2025: 10 (Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam).
- Regional blocs invited to India's 2026 outreach sessions: GCC (est. 1981), ASEAN (est. 1967), CELAC (est. 2011), AU (est. 2002), BIMSTEC (est. 1997).
- India previously hosted BRICS in 2012 and 2021; its first BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit was at Goa in 2016.