Against the backdrop of a changing world order, India is set to host the two-day BRICS summit from Saturday. India is hosting the 18th edition of the event after assuming its fourth Chairship on January 1. The summit is guided by the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’.
The event is slated to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and several other leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, marking his first visit to India in nearly seven years.
BRICS, which positions itself as an alternative to the West-centric world order, originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. However, it expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with Indonesia joining in 2025. Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam became BRICS partner countries last year.
The bloc has emerged as an influential group, bringing together 11 major emerging economies that represent around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of global GDP and around 26 per cent of global trade.
In a media statement, the MEA said India’s BRICS Chairship was guided by the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’. The summit is set to take up a host of issues, with the ongoing West Asian conflict assuming significance as both the UAE and Iran are members of the bloc. The conflict could pose challenges to reaching a consensus on the joint statement.
India is also faced with the challenge of a rising anti-Western sentiment within the bloc, with some members pushing it away from India’s non-Western position. With Iran and Russia caught up in conflicts, directly or indirectly, with the US, and China seeking to challenge the economic superpower, India finds itself wedged between competing diplomatic positions.
On the agenda are efficient cross-border payment mechanisms, digital public infrastructure and trade connectivity, along with a growing push towards dedollarisation. Pezeshkian had called for a stronger shift towards local currencies in BRICS trade, while pitching Iran’s geography, energy resources and transport links as a strategic bridge for the bloc’s economic connectivity.
Addressing the BRICS Business Forum in India earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the grouping to identify and remove its top 10 trade barriers, scale 100 BRICS startups into other member markets every year and build 1,000 new business partnerships annually. The grouping, he said, should convert its growing economic weight into concrete opportunities for businesses, positioning India as a country building “economic bridges” at a time when trade barriers are rising globally.
