Prime Minister chaired the BRICS session on “Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism” (September 12, 2026)
The Prime Minister chaired a dedicated BRICS session titled "Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism" on 12 September 2026, during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
He described the Global South as standing in the "front row" of global crises but the "back row" of global decision-making, calling for a shift from a governance system based on privilege to one based on partnership.
He urged BRICS to help transform developing countries from "rule-takers" into "rule-shapers," proposing structured training in negotiation and legal expertise for young diplomats and policymakers from the Global South.
He framed the reform roadmap around three principles — representation, responsiveness, and rule-making — and separately proposed a "Troika arrangement" (coordination among the outgoing, current and incoming BRICS chairs) with a secure digital repository to track implementation of summit commitments across chairship years.
The session fed into the New Delhi Declaration, which backed expanded roles for India and Brazil within the UN system as part of the broader reformed-multilateralism agenda.
The BRICS Troika Mechanism for Institutional Continuity
Because BRICS has no permanent secretariat and its chairship rotates annually among members, the "Troika" is the informal coordination mechanism — comprising the outgoing chair, the current chair, and the incoming chair — used to preserve policy continuity across leadership transitions.
Key Details
- The Troika ensures that multi-year initiatives (trade facilitation, expansion processes, sectoral working groups) do not lose momentum when the annual chairship changes hands.
- The Prime Minister's 2026 proposal to formalise this with a "secure digital repository" would create an institutional memory system to track which summit commitments have actually been implemented — addressing a long-standing criticism that BRICS declarations are heavy on aspiration but light on follow-through.
- This is structurally different from the G20's negotiated troika-style handover, since BRICS has now grown to 11 full members after its 2024–25 expansion, making continuity harder to manage informally.
The Troika proposal is the institutional mechanism through which the session's call for "responsiveness" (one of the PM's three pillars) could actually be operationalised, rather than remaining a rhetorical commitment.
Reformed Multilateralism and UN Security Council Expansion
"Reformed multilateralism" is the recurring BRICS and Indian diplomatic framing for restructuring post-1945 global governance bodies — chiefly the UN Security Council — to reflect current economic and demographic realities rather than the World War II-era power balance.
Key Details
- The UN Security Council's five permanent, veto-holding members (US, UK, France, Russia, China) were fixed under the UN Charter of 1945; expanding permanent membership requires a Charter amendment under Article 108, needing two-thirds of UN General Assembly members including all five permanent members' ratification.
- India pursues Security Council reform primarily through the G4 grouping (India, Brazil, Germany, Japan), which in January 2026 presented a model for Council expansion to 25–26 seats, including six new permanent seats distributed across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Western Europe.
- The New Delhi Declaration's explicit backing for "expanded roles for India and Brazil" in the UN system aligns directly with the G4's reform demand, though four of the five P5 members have voiced support while one (China) has not.
The PM's "representation" pillar for Global South governance reform is UNSC reform's core justification — that permanent membership does not reflect the current distribution of global population, economic weight, or crisis exposure.
The Global South Framing: Continuity from NAM to the Voice of Global South Summit
"Global South" solidarity diplomacy is not new to this summit — it descends from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, founded 1961, rooted in the 1955 Bandung Conference) and was more recently institutionalised by India through the "Voice of Global South Summit" platform.
Key Details
- India convened the first "Voice of Global South Summit" in January 2023 ahead of its G20 presidency, and a second edition later that year, explicitly to channel developing-country priorities into the G20 agenda — a template India is now extending into its 2026 BRICS chairship.
- The PM's "rule-taker to rule-shaper" framing extends this same logic: rather than developing countries only receiving outcomes negotiated by dominant powers, India is positioning BRICS (and earlier, the G20) as vehicles for direct Global South agenda-setting.
- This continuity across the G20 (2023) and BRICS (2026) presidencies is a useful Mains point on India's evolving strategic identity as a "bridge" or "leading" power for the developing world.
The session's "representation, responsiveness, rule-making" framework is best understood not as a one-off summit theme but as the latest iteration of a decades-long Indian and Global South diplomatic project running from Bandung through NAM to the Voice of Global South Summits and now BRICS 2026.
- BRICS session on "Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism" chaired by the Prime Minister: 12 September 2026, 18th BRICS Summit, New Delhi.
- UN Charter amendment (Article 108) requires two-thirds UNGA approval plus ratification by all five P5 members to expand Security Council permanent membership.
- G4 (India, Brazil, Germany, Japan) UNSC reform model (January 2026): proposes expansion to 25–26 total seats, six new permanent seats.
- Voice of Global South Summit: first edition convened by India in January 2023, ahead of its G20 presidency.
- BRICS full membership as of the 2026 summit: 11 countries following 2024–25 expansion.