By Team INVC | INVC NEWS
NEW DELHI, India | September 11, 2026 —
BRICS Summit 2026 will put Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the center of one of India’s most difficult diplomatic balancing acts as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Masoud Pezeshkian and other world leaders converge on New Delhi for a summit overshadowed by war in West Asia, soaring oil prices and widening divisions inside the expanded bloc.
India will host the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12 and 13 under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
However, the official agenda tells only part of the story.
The immediate political test is whether India can help produce a joint BRICS position on the Iran conflict that Tehran and Abu Dhabi can both accept.
That task has become considerably harder after the conflict pushed two BRICS members — Iran and the United Arab Emirates — onto opposing sides of a deepening regional crisis.
The dispute has already complicated attempts to build consensus within the grouping.
Now, with leaders gathering in the Indian capital, the ability to produce a united Delhi Declaration could become one of the clearest measures of whether an expanded BRICS can act as a coherent geopolitical bloc.
PM Modi Faces the Iran Test
Iran joined BRICS in 2024 as part of the grouping’s major expansion.
The UAE also became part of the expanded bloc.
Since then, the escalating conflict in West Asia has placed their interests increasingly at odds.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is attending the New Delhi summit.
The UAE is expected to be represented by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the challenge is delicate.
India maintains important strategic and economic relationships across the Gulf while also preserving longstanding ties with Iran.
New Delhi therefore has little interest in allowing BRICS to become another arena for regional confrontation.
Instead, India wants the summit to demonstrate that countries with sharply different geopolitical positions can still cooperate on common economic and global-governance priorities.
Iran-UAE Divide Threatens BRICS Consensus
BRICS works largely through consensus.
That becomes much harder when members fundamentally disagree over a major conflict.
The Iran-UAE divide has already affected the grouping.
BRICS foreign ministers failed to produce a joint statement at an earlier meeting in New Delhi amid differences involving Iran and the UAE.
The current negotiations are therefore about more than diplomatic wording.
If BRICS leaders cannot agree on language addressing one of the world’s biggest ongoing geopolitical crises, questions about the effectiveness of the expanded grouping will intensify.
Russian officials have openly acknowledged the problem.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said differences between Iran and the UAE have had a negative impact on efforts to draft a common declaration.
He nevertheless expressed hope that leaders could find language acceptable to both sides.
Why the Delhi Declaration Matters
A joint declaration is unlikely to end the conflict.
However, politically, it matters enormously for BRICS.
The grouping presents itself as a major voice of the Global South and advocates reform of international institutions.
Its influence depends partly on its ability to reach common positions.
A failure to issue a strong joint declaration in New Delhi would highlight the difficulty of maintaining consensus after BRICS expanded to include countries with increasingly diverse strategic interests.
A successful declaration, on the other hand, would allow India to present the summit as evidence that the expanded grouping can manage internal disagreements.
That would be an important diplomatic achievement for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Strait of Hormuz Crisis Raises the Stakes
The conflict is also creating an immediate economic problem.
Disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil-shipping routes, has helped drive crude prices above $100 per barrel.
For India, expensive oil creates serious consequences.
The country imports a large share of its crude requirement.
Higher oil prices can increase the import bill, weaken the rupee, increase inflationary pressure and hurt economic growth.
That means the West Asia crisis is not merely a foreign-policy question for New Delhi.
It directly affects Indian households and financial markets.
The rupee has already moved close to ₹96 per US dollar as oil prices and global risk aversion increase pressure on emerging-market currencies.
Energy security will therefore hang heavily over the BRICS discussions.
PM Modi-Putin Meeting Takes Center Stage
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to hold bilateral talks ahead of the main summit.
Trade and economic cooperation are expected to feature prominently.
Russia remains a major energy supplier to India.
The relationship has also attracted intense scrutiny from Washington because of India’s purchases of Russian oil.
New Delhi has repeatedly defended its energy decisions as being driven by national economic interests.
The PM Modi-Putin meeting will consequently be watched not only in Moscow and New Delhi but also in Washington and European capitals.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss broader regional and global developments.
Putin Arrives as Russia Deepens BRICS Trade
Russia has increasingly turned toward BRICS partners as Western sanctions reshape its trade relationships.
Moscow says a large majority of its payments with BRICS members now take place through national currencies.
That trend fits a broader BRICS objective of increasing financial cooperation among member states.
However, India has resisted portraying BRICS as a campaign to destroy or replace the US dollar.
New Delhi’s preferred approach focuses on practical mechanisms that make trade between member countries easier.
That distinction will be particularly important as Washington watches the summit.
Xi Jinping’s India Visit Carries Huge Political Weight
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s participation adds another major geopolitical dimension.
His visit will be his first to India in approximately seven years.
India-China relations suffered a prolonged period of severe strain following military tensions along the Line of Actual Control.
Recent diplomatic engagement has created signs of stabilization.
A PM Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of BRICS could therefore become one of the summit’s most closely watched events.
Both governments have been exploring ways to stabilize bilateral relations while continuing to manage significant strategic disagreements.
PM Modi-Xi Talks Could Go Beyond BRICS
Economic engagement could feature prominently in any meeting between the two leaders.
India and China have enormous trade ties, but New Delhi remains concerned about its large trade deficit and restrictions affecting market access.
Investment, visas and business conditions could also enter the conversation.
Another important area is border management.
Despite progress since the height of the military confrontation, trust remains limited.
Any new mechanism for military communication or border stability would therefore carry significance well beyond the summit.
India Does Not Want BRICS to Become Anti-West
This is one of the most important elements of India’s BRICS strategy.
Russia and China often emphasize BRICS as an alternative center of global power.
Iran views the grouping partly as a mechanism for resisting US unilateralism and sanctions.
India’s position is more carefully balanced.
New Delhi wants stronger representation for developing countries and reforms to global institutions.
However, India simultaneously maintains deep strategic, economic and technological relationships with the United States, Europe and other Western partners.
Turning BRICS into an explicitly anti-Western alliance would therefore conflict with India’s broader foreign-policy interests.
Donald Trump’s Policies Add Another Layer
US President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies have nevertheless given BRICS members additional reasons to cooperate.
Protectionism and unilateral economic measures have become major concerns for emerging economies.
Several BRICS countries oppose Western sanctions and want international economic systems to become less dependent on decisions made in Washington.
That does not mean every BRICS member wants the same alternative.
China and Russia have pushed strongly for reduced reliance on the dollar.
India remains much more cautious.
The Delhi summit will therefore need to find language broad enough to satisfy different ambitions.
Is BRICS Trying to Replace the Dollar?
Claims about a single BRICS currency have repeatedly generated headlines.
However, India has not presented the 2026 summit as a campaign to launch a common currency or immediately replace the dollar.
The more practical agenda involves increasing trade settlement in national currencies and improving financial cooperation.
That approach is considerably different from creating a BRICS equivalent of the euro.
Member countries have different financial systems, economic structures and monetary priorities.
Creating a shared currency would therefore require an extraordinary level of integration that does not currently exist.
BRICS Has Become Much Bigger
Expansion has dramatically increased the group’s global footprint.
BRICS now represents a huge share of the world’s population and economic activity.
India’s government says the grouping accounts for nearly half of the global population, around 40% of global GDP and more than a quarter of world trade.
That gives BRICS enormous potential influence.
However, expansion has created a paradox.
The grouping has become more powerful on paper.
At the same time, reaching agreement has become harder because members have increasingly different foreign-policy priorities.
Expansion Is Both BRICS’ Strength and Weakness
The original grouping brought together Brazil, Russia, India and China before South Africa joined.
Its expansion brought in countries from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
That strengthened its claim to represent the Global South.
Yet Iran and the UAE now illustrate the challenge.
More members mean more economic weight.
They also mean more competing interests.
BRICS must therefore prove that diversity does not make consensus impossible.
The New Delhi summit could become a defining test.
India Wants BRICS to Focus on Practical Cooperation
India’s 2026 presidency has deliberately emphasized development-oriented themes.
Its four priorities are reflected in the acronym of the summit theme:
Resilience
Strengthening institutions and economies against global shocks.
Innovation
Expanding cooperation in technology, startups and future industries.
Cooperation
Building practical partnerships among member countries.
Sustainability
Supporting development while addressing climate and environmental challenges.
India has also emphasized a “Humanity First” approach.
That framing allows New Delhi to position BRICS as a solutions-oriented platform rather than a geopolitical confrontation with another bloc.
Global Governance Reform Will Be a Major Issue
BRICS members have long argued that global institutions do not adequately reflect today’s distribution of economic and political power.
Reform of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions is expected to feature in discussions.
India has particularly strong interests in this area.
New Delhi has repeatedly called for reform of the UN Security Council and greater representation for developing countries.
A strong BRICS statement supporting multilateral reform would therefore fit one of India’s longstanding diplomatic priorities.
Terrorism Could Feature in Delhi Declaration
India has also pushed for stronger language on terrorism.
For New Delhi, counterterrorism remains a central foreign-policy concern.
Securing broad BRICS support for stronger anti-terror commitments would allow India to reinforce its argument that terrorism should be addressed consistently rather than according to geopolitical convenience.
Negotiations over the final declaration will show how far member countries are willing to go.
Supply Chains and Energy Security Matter Too
The summit is not solely about war and diplomacy.
BRICS countries are also discussing ways to make supply chains more resilient.
Global conflicts have demonstrated how quickly shipping routes, energy supplies and commodity markets can be disrupted.
A BRICS logistics and supply-chain cooperation framework has been under discussion.
Such measures could eventually improve transport connectivity and reduce vulnerability to external shocks.
Energy security is likely to become even more urgent because of the current oil crisis.
Can PM Modi Hold the Bloc Together?
That question sits at the heart of the summit.
India must manage several relationships simultaneously.
It wants close ties with Russia without damaging its partnership with the United States.
It wants stable relations with China without overlooking unresolved strategic differences.
It maintains ties with Iran while building increasingly deep relationships with Gulf Arab states.
At the same time, New Delhi wants BRICS to remain influential without turning into an explicitly anti-Western alliance.
Few international summits illustrate India’s multi-alignment strategy more clearly.
What to Watch on September 12-13
The Delhi Declaration will provide the biggest test.
Watch the exact language on the Iran conflict and Western sanctions.
A PM Modi-Xi meeting could produce signals about the future of India-China relations.
PM Modi’s talks with Vladimir Putin will reveal how both sides plan to deepen economic and energy cooperation amid global pressure.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s engagements will also attract attention because of the continuing West Asia crisis.
Energy security, the Strait of Hormuz and crude oil prices could run through several discussions.
Final Word
BRICS Summit 2026 was supposed to showcase the growing influence of the Global South under India’s presidency.
It may now become something even more consequential.
The New Delhi summit will test whether a rapidly expanded BRICS can remain united when two of its members find themselves deeply divided by a major regional conflict.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sits at the center of that challenge.
Vladimir Putin brings Russia’s confrontation with the West into the room.
Xi Jinping’s first India visit in seven years creates an opportunity to stabilize one of Asia’s most consequential relationships.
Masoud Pezeshkian arrives as Iran confronts an escalating conflict that has shaken global energy markets.
And the UAE represents the other side of an internal BRICS divide that negotiators must bridge if they want a meaningful joint declaration.
If India succeeds in producing consensus, New Delhi can argue that BRICS expansion has strengthened rather than paralyzed the grouping.
If negotiations fail, the summit could expose the fundamental weakness of a bloc whose global ambitions are expanding faster than its political unity.
That makes the Delhi Declaration more than diplomatic paperwork.
It could become the document that answers the central question surrounding BRICS in 2026:
Can an increasingly powerful but increasingly divided group of nations still speak with one voice?
