Diplomacy tightrope, economic heft test await India at Brics summit
India is hosting the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit on September 12–13, 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, under its 2026 BRICS chairship.
The summit's theme, "Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," centres discussions on trade, investment, energy security, food security, supply chains, and interoperability of payment systems.
Ahead of the summit, trade data show India's bilateral trade with BRICS members rose to about $416 billion in 2025 (from $289 billion in 2021), but with a widening deficit — imports of roughly $320 billion far outpacing exports of about $96 billion.
The agenda is expected to weigh India's growing economic dependence on the bloc (import-heavy trade, energy sourcing) against its stake in BRICS-led financial mechanisms such as the New Development Bank and local-currency payment interoperability, alongside continued balancing of ties with other member states and Global South partners.
New Development Bank (NDB) — the BRICS lending arm
The New Development Bank is the multilateral development bank set up by BRICS to fund infrastructure and sustainable development projects in member and partner countries, positioned as an alternative funding channel to the World Bank/IMF system. It was established under the 2014 Fortaleza Declaration (signed at the 6th BRICS Summit in Brazil) and became operational in 2015, headquartered in Shanghai, with a regional office in Johannesburg.
The NDB is India's principal lever for converting BRICS membership into concrete infrastructure financing rather than just diplomatic symbolism — a key "economic heft" asset India will look to expand at the 2026 summit alongside its trade agenda.
BRICS Pay and local-currency settlement (de-dollarisation)
BRICS Pay is a proposed decentralised payment-messaging mechanism, first floated in 2018, intended to let BRICS members settle trade in their own currencies rather than through the US dollar and SWIFT. The 2025 BRICS declaration called for continued work on interoperability of national payment systems and greater use of local currencies in intra-bloc transactions.
Key Details
- As of 2024, local currencies already accounted for about 65% of trade settlement between BRICS member states.
- The approach favoured for 2026 is linking existing national systems — Russia's SPFS, China's CIPS, and India's domestic payment rails (e.g., UPI) — rather than creating a single common BRICS currency.
- India has explicitly rejected the idea of a shared BRICS currency, distinguishing "payment interoperability" (linking existing systems) from "currency union" (a single new currency).
- This is separate from bilateral rupee-trade settlement mechanisms India has negotiated individually with some partner countries.
Payment interoperability, not a common currency, is the concrete economic-integration deliverable India is expected to push at the summit — a distinction UPSC often tests (BRICS Pay/local-currency settlement vs. a hypothetical single BRICS currency).
India's BRICS trade profile — the import-dependence question
BRICS grew out of the 2001 "BRIC" thesis by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill (projecting the rising GDP weight of Brazil, Russia, India, China); the grouping held its first leaders' summit in 2009 at Yekaterinburg, Russia, and became "BRICS" when South Africa joined in 2010. It expanded substantially in the 2020s, now numbering 11 full members.
Key Details
- 2024 expansion (Kazan Summit) admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE; Indonesia became the 11th full member in January 2025.
- Ten Partner countries (a category short of full membership) — including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam — joined in 2025.
- India's imports from BRICS partners rose at a 12% CAGR (2021–2025) versus just 3% CAGR for exports to the bloc over the same period, widening the trade deficit.
- BRICS' share of India's total imports rose from 36% (2021) to about 43% (2025); its share of India's exports is roughly 22%, underlining an asymmetric, import-heavy trade relationship (largely energy and inputs from Russia and China).
India's "economic heft" at the summit is double-edged — a large and growing trade relationship gives it standing to shape BRICS financial architecture (NDB, payments), but the widening, import-driven deficit is also the structural vulnerability it must manage in framing supply-chain and energy-security asks.
- 18th BRICS Summit: September 12–13, 2026, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi (India's BRICS chair year).
- BRICS membership: 11 full members + 10 Partner countries (as of 2026).
- NDB: established 2014 (Fortaleza Declaration), operational 2015; HQ Shanghai; authorised capital USD 100 billion, subscribed capital USD 50 billion (founders' equal split).
- India–BRICS bilateral trade: ~USD 416 billion (2025), up from ~USD 289 billion (2021); imports ~USD 320 billion vs. exports ~USD 96 billion.
- Local-currency share of intra-BRICS trade: ~65% (2024).
- BRICS origin: term coined 2001 (Jim O'Neill, Goldman Sachs); first summit 2009 (Yekaterinburg); South Africa joined 2010.