BRICS: Leaders to navigate global trade disputes, regional crises
As global trade disputes and geopolitical upheavals unleash economic headwinds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other leaders from BRICS nations will gather on Saturday for the India-hosted summit to navigate global challenges, including insulating developing economies from the impact of conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia.
In a strategic balancing act, New Delhi is looking at leveraging the two-day annual summit to position the grouping as a complementary engine for economic growth while being mindful of sensitivities of the United States and other Western powers, especially in the trade and energy domains.
As the BRICS chair, India has placed the Global South at the heart of its agenda by seeking actionable solutions for food, energy, and supply chain security primarily to insulate the developing nations from the economic consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia.
Besides Xi and Putin, the other leaders attending the New Delhi BRICS summit are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, New Development Bank (NDB) president Dilma Rousseff and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Chief Zou Jiayi will also be attending the BRICS summit.
While the Brazilian delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Uzbek Deputy PM Jamshid Kuchkarov and Ugandan Vice President Jessica Rose Epel Alupo will represent their respective countries at the summit.
Philippines President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr, Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev are also set to join the summit to represent regional groupings ASEAN, African Union, and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), respectively.
The summit assumed greater significance as it is taking place against the backdrop of a global economy facing the adverse impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, the West Asia crisis, especially the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policies.
In an address at an event on the sidelines of the summit, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said the BRICS must work towards addressing economic challenges, including by ensuring transparent trade and investment practices.
“The common thread is how to make it easier for businesses in our countries to find more partners, access more markets, connect supply networks and convert complementarities into viable commercial partnerships,” he said.
“The objective is to strengthen our ability to absorb shocks while remaining connected and competitive,” he said.
With just a day left before the summit begins, it remains unclear whether member nations will reach a consensus on a joint statement, as differences between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the West Asia crisis persist within the consensus-based grouping.
Reportedly, Iran has been pushing to explicitly condemn US-Israel military actions, while the UAE insists that the statement highlight the necessity of maintaining freedom of navigation across critical maritime routes.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates 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.
BRICS emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade. India’s chairship of the grouping centred on the four pillars: resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.
Under the resilience pillar, India has been focusing on strengthening collective cooperation in areas such as health, agriculture, food, energy, disaster risk reduction and supply chains, officials said.
Enhancing cooperation in trade, investment, connectivity and high technology will also be high on the agenda of the summit, they said.
India’s BRICS chairship is guided by the theme: ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, reflecting its vision of a people-centric approach rooted in the spirit of “humanity first.”
In addition to these areas, the leaders will exchange views on strengthening intra-BRICS cooperation on common priorities and share perspectives on global and regional matters of mutual importance, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.
Under India’s Chairship this year, over 350 meetings and high-level engagements have been held in over 25 cities across the country to further strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership across three fundamental pillars: political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
India is a founding member of BRICS, and has previously held its chairship in 2012, 2016 and 2021. India assumed its fourth BRICS chairship on 1 January 2026. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the summit will begin at 2:35 pm on Saturday with a closed-door session for BRICS member countries themed “Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism.”
Following the session, leaders will tour the “Bharat Innovates Exhibition,” scheduled to open at 4:25 pm.
At 5:05 pm, the leaders will assemble on the lawns of Bharat Mandapam -- the summit venue -- for a photo, followed by a joint tree-planting ceremony.
The first day’s engagements will conclude with a gala dinner hosted by Prime Minister Modi at 7:30 pm.
On Sunday, leaders from BRICS member states, partner nations, and outreach invitees will arrive starting at 9:55 am, followed by an official group photo at 10:35 am. The open session, titled “Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability: Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth,” is scheduled to begin at 10:50 am, according to the schedule released by the MEA.
The summit will culminate with the release of the New Delhi Declaration. Formalised at the 2006 UN General Assembly, BRIC held its first summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.
The group expanded to BRICS after agreeing to admit South Africa during the 2010 UNGA Foreign Ministers’ meeting, with South Africa joining its first summit in Sanya in 2011.
