BRICS Summit 2026 LIVE updates: BRICS leaders set to meet, as wars and U.S. tensions test the bloc
The 18th BRICS Summit was held on 12–13 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, with India as the chairing member for the year.
Ten full BRICS members took part: the original five (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) alongside Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (which joined in 2024) and Indonesia (which joined in 2025); Saudi Arabia's formal accession remains incomplete despite being listed as an invited member.
The summit convened amid ongoing regional conflicts and global trade tensions, with member states holding differing positions on Middle East developments and on unilateral tariff and sanctions measures.
Senior officials of the United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization also attended alongside BRICS heads of state and government, reflecting the bloc's engagement with existing multilateral institutions.
BRICS — Origin, Expansion, and Current Membership
The term "BRIC" was coined in 2001 by economist Jim O'Neill to describe Brazil, Russia, India, and China as major emerging economies; the grouping held its first formal leaders' summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2010, forming "BRICS."
The exact roster of full members versus partner countries versus unconfirmed invitees (Saudi Arabia) is a recurring prelims trap, since media reporting often treats all invited states as full members.
BRICS Institutional Architecture: NDB and CRA
BRICS built two dedicated financial institutions distinct from the Bretton Woods system: the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).
Key Details
- NDB: established by the agreement signed at the 2014 Fortaleza Summit, headquartered in Shanghai, with USD 100 billion in founding capital subscribed equally among the five founding members; governance follows a one-country-one-vote principle with no veto power, unlike the IMF/World Bank's capital-weighted voting.
- CRA: a USD 100 billion currency swap-line facility established in 2015 to provide balance-of-payments support to members facing short-term liquidity pressure.
- NDB membership has expanded since 2021 to include Bangladesh, the UAE, and Egypt — a separate expansion track from BRICS political membership.
These institutions underpin BRICS's broader claim to offer an alternative financial architecture, a theme central to summit discussions on de-dollarization and local-currency settlement.
Geopolitical Fault Lines Within an Expanded BRICS
BRICS's 2024–25 expansion added states with significant bilateral tensions among themselves, complicating the bloc's traditional consensus-based diplomacy.
Key Details
- Iran and the UAE hold divergent positions on Middle East conflicts, complicating unified BRICS statements on regional security.
- Egypt and Ethiopia have an unresolved dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Nile water-sharing.
- India and China, both founding members, carry an unresolved boundary dispute along the Line of Actual Control.
- Despite these divisions, the 2026 summit's New Delhi Declaration was adopted unanimously after intensive negotiation — itself a data point on how consensus-based multilateral blocs manage internal disagreement.
The reporting on "wars and tensions testing the bloc" reflects these structural fault lines that have grown more numerous as BRICS expanded beyond its original five relatively less conflict-prone founding members.
BRICS Compared to Other Multilateral Groupings (G20, SCO)
Distinguishing BRICS from superficially similar groupings is a standard prelims comparison.
Key Details
- The G20 (established 1999; leaders' summits since 2008) includes both advanced Western economies (US, EU, Japan) and emerging economies, making it a broader forum than BRICS, which is composed exclusively of non-Western-aligned emerging and developing economies.
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO, established 2001) overlaps in membership with BRICS (Russia, India, China, Iran are members of both) but is oriented toward regional security, counter-terrorism, and connectivity rather than BRICS's focus on economic governance and financial architecture.
- Unlike the G20's negotiated annual presidency handover, the BRICS chairship rotates among member states on a set annual basis.
The presence of UN, WHO, and WTO officials at a BRICS summit — rather than at a G20 or SCO summit — reflects BRICS's specific emphasis on reforming global economic and health governance institutions.
- Summit dates and venue: 12–13 September 2026, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi
- BRICS founded: 2009 (Yekaterinburg, as "BRIC"); South Africa added 2010
- 2024 expansion: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE (agreed at Kazan Summit, Russia)
- 2025 expansion: Indonesia (10th full member)
- Saudi Arabia: invited 2024, accession not formally completed as of the 2026 summit
- NDB founding capital: USD 100 billion (2014); CRA size: USD 100 billion (2015)
- G20 established: 1999 (finance ministers), leaders' summits since 2008
- SCO established: 2001; overlapping members with BRICS include Russia, India, China, Iran