BRICS Summit 2026 Day 2 Highlights: BRICS leaders voice concern over 'growing risks' of nuclear conflict
The 18th BRICS Summit concluded its two-day proceedings at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 13 September 2026, under India's 2026 BRICS chairship, with member leaders reiterating positions from the New Delhi Declaration adopted a day earlier.
Leaders condemned sanctions imposed outside the authority of the United Nations Security Council, calling for "the elimination of such unlawful measures" that undermine international law and the UN Charter's principles.
The grouping repeated concern over "growing risks" of nuclear conflict and attacks on civilian and IAEA-safeguarded nuclear infrastructure, without naming any specific country or conflict.
Closing sessions also touched on reform of multilateral institutions, technology and critical-mineral supply chains, and cooperation among the bloc's now-11 full members, reflecting BRICS' continued push to position itself as a voice for the Global South.
Unilateral Sanctions vs UN Security Council Sanctions
International law draws a sharp distinction between sanctions authorised by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and sanctions imposed unilaterally by individual states or blocs outside that framework. Chapter VII (Articles 39-51) empowers the Security Council to determine threats to international peace and authorise measures — including economic sanctions under Article 41 — that are binding on all UN member states. The UN Charter contains no equivalent provision authorising unilateral coercive economic measures.
Key Details
- UNSC Chapter VII sanctions are legally binding on all 193 UN member states once adopted; unilateral sanctions bind only the imposing state(s) and are not recognised as lawful multilateral action under the Charter.
- Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use or threat of force, while Article 2(7) enshrines non-interference in matters within a state's domestic jurisdiction — a principle unilateral sanctions are frequently argued to violate.
- Legal scholarship treats the legality of unilateral sanctions as contested and "fragile," unlike Security Council sanctions (clearly lawful) or narrowly defined countermeasures under the law of state responsibility.
BRICS' call to eliminate sanctions "not authorised by the UN" reflects a long-standing position (also raised in earlier BRICS declarations, including on the Ukraine and Iran-related Western sanctions regimes) that frames unilateralism outside UNSC authorisation as inherently violative of the UN Charter's cooperative security architecture — a recurring theme testable on multilateral institutional design.
The New Development Bank (NDB) and BRICS' Institutional Architecture
The New Development Bank (NDB), established in 2015 by the five founding BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) at the Fortaleza Summit, is BRICS' flagship financial institution, created as an alternative to Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank, IMF) for funding infrastructure and sustainable development in emerging economies.
Key Details
- NDB headquarters: Shanghai, China; capital was initially subscribed equally among the five founding members, each holding one vote with no member holding veto power (unlike IMF/World Bank voting-share structures).
- NDB membership has since expanded beyond the founding five to include Bangladesh, Egypt, UAE, Uruguay, Algeria, and others — a separate track of expansion from BRICS' own political membership.
- NDB regional offices exist in Johannesburg (2016, first regional office), São Paulo, Moscow, and Ahmedabad (India's designated NDB regional hub).
The summit's emphasis on reforming global governance and reducing dependence on Western-dominated financial institutions is institutionally anchored in the NDB, which BRICS cites as proof that its 140-paragraph New Delhi Declaration's institutional-reform rhetoric has concrete multilateral machinery behind it.
BRICS Membership Expansion (2024-2026) and Its Consensus Challenge
BRICS has expanded from its original five members to an 11-member bloc through staged accessions: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE joined as full members on 1 January 2024; Indonesia joined 6 January 2025; and Saudi Arabia formally joined as a full member in July 2025. A separate "Partner Country" tier — created at the 2024 Kazan Summit — includes ten countries such as Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Uganda, Belarus, Malaysia, and Vietnam, allowing engagement without full membership.
Key Details
- BRICS' full members as of the 2026 summit: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (founding five) plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
- The Partner Country modality lets states participate in BRICS meetings and cooperation tracks without committing immediately to full membership — a flexible expansion tool distinct from formal accession.
- BRICS decisions, including the New Delhi Declaration, operate by consensus among all full members, meaning a larger and more diverse membership (including states like Iran and the UAE, on opposite sides of West Asian tensions) makes unanimous declarations progressively harder to negotiate.
The successful adoption of the New Delhi Declaration despite the bloc's expanded and more diverse 11-member composition — spanning states with sharply differing positions on West Asia and Ukraine — was cited as a notable diplomatic achievement of India's 2026 chairship, illustrating how consensus-based multilateralism functions (and strains) as membership grows.
- 18th BRICS Summit: 12-13 September 2026, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, under India's 2026 chairship.
- BRICS full membership (2026): 11 countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia.
- BRICS Partner Countries (since 2024 Kazan Summit): 10, including Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Uganda, Belarus, Malaysia, Vietnam.
- New Development Bank: established 2015 (Fortaleza Summit), headquartered in Shanghai; equal capital and single-vote structure among founding members.
- UN Charter basis for lawful multilateral sanctions: Chapter VII, Article 41 (measures short of armed force).