The upcoming 18th Brics Summit under India’s presidency could turn out to be both an economic lever and a diplomatic endurance test for New Delhi.
At the 11-13 September meetings and on the sidelines, the host country will likely pursue concrete outcomes on crucial agendas, including supply chain resilience, seamless cross-border transactions, energy security, reforms within multilateral bodies, and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), according to several government officials and experts.
The joint participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the summit will also give India an opportunity to rethink its ties with China, push the Global South’s cause and manage the West’s expectations without upsetting its old ally, Russia, officials said. Xi had skipped the previous summit in Rio de Janeiro, while Putin attended it virtually.
“Participation of leaders like Xi, Putin and others in the forthcoming summit in New Delhi is itself a sign of big success, more than concrete outcomes or deliverables,” said Dammu Ravi, India’s former Brics Sherpa and former secretary (economic relations) in the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
New Delhi could also reiterate its message of humanity in the backdrop of continuing wars in and Ukraine, said a government official on the condition of anonymity.
Brics is a grouping of emerging economies, an acronym of its original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It has since expanded to 11 nations, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia joining in.
Cross-border cooperation
Government officials said issues such as facilitating greater use of local currencies for cross-border settlements, improving payment connectivity, and reducing the cost of cross-border transactions could see some headway at the summit.
While India hasn’t endorsed the idea of introducing a Brics currency, seen as a challenge to the dollar’s dominance, the country has supported efforts to promote trade settlement in local currencies to raise trade flows.
The officials said discussions are also expected to focus on building resilient and diversified global value chains and strengthening supply-chain cooperation, particularly in strategically important sectors.
Support for micro, small, and medium enterprises, digital trade and trade facilitation are also expected to remain central to the discussions, including cooperation on digitally delivered services, customs and seamless cross-border commerce, they added.
Energy security, access, and equity, in addition to fostering innovation, resilient infrastructure, and capacity-building, are also expected to be in focus, according to two government officials.
Further, in the wake of the war in West Asia and volatility in the energy market, India, through the Global Biofuels Alliance, is expected to push for greater adoption of biofuels and technology transfer, along with investment commitments, added another government official.
The member countries are also expected to come together on new-age technologies, including and carbon capture, utilization and storage, the official added.
Chinese business
The sidelines of the summit could also present an opportunity for India and China to smooth certain bilateral issues, ranging from trade imbalance and visa curbs to investment and market access in China.
Earlier this year, New Delhi allowed overseas entities with up to a 10% Chinese shareholding to invest in the country without prior government approval, as part of a calibrated easing of its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy restrictions. In 2020, New Delhi had tightened its , mandating prior government approval for such investments from countries sharing a land border with India.
“India will seek greater access for Indian firms to the Chinese market and the removal of non-tariff barriers,” said a second government official. The Union commerce ministry recently asked industry associations and some trade bodies to provide inputs for this purpose.
Facilitating freer movement of skilled workers and greater Chinese investments in India could be explored in bilateral discussions, the official added.
India’s high goods trade deficit with China has been a sore point. The gap was at $112 billion in financial year 2026, widening from about $99 billion in the previous fiscal. New Delhi has long blamed Beijing for restricting access for Indian exporters, asking the world’s second-largest economy to further open up to Indian goods and services.
Nagesh Kumar, a trade economist and member of the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, underscored the need to bolster trade cooperation, as envisaged at last month’s Brics commerce ministers’ meeting, given the disparities among member countries.
“On the one hand, China is the global manufacturing hub running substantial and rising trade surpluses with practically every trade partner; many other Brics members have relatively weaker manufacturing capacities and remain confined to exporting raw commodities, like Ethiopia,” said Kumar.
Cooperation among the member nations would be key to advancing capacity-building and technology transfer “to foster more inclusive and diversified global value chains, helping to share the fruits of trade in a more inclusive manner”, Kumar said.
Xi last visited India seven years ago, before the 2020 Galwan clash that had frayed bilateral relations. The Chinese leader will likely be accompanied by a delegation of about 400 officials, compared with fewer than 200 officials the last time in 2019, according to a Reuters report.
The balancing act
New Delhi, experts said, will have to gather all its negotiation skills to pull off an act similar to its 2023 presidency of the G20 grouping, when it managed to produce a joint statement at the end, convincing sparring parties in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to come to some kind of an agreement.
This could be the most challenging task for Indian diplomats and officials this time around as well.
The Brics foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi in May didn’t produce a joint statement due to internal divisions, mainly over the ongoing West Asia war, as Iran and the UAE stuck to starkly different stances. This led India to issue a Chair’s statement and an outcome document instead, acknowledging the differing positions of certain members.
“A joint statement would be what everyone should be striving for, and any kind of agreement over ways to help end the West Asia conflict would be a key deliverable of the summit and reflect well on its members,” said Jayant Dasgupta, former Indian ambassador to the World Trade Organization. “Furthering cooperation where all the members will be benefited, and not a select few, would be another major deliverable.”
Mint‘s queries emailed to the embassies of the Brics member nations, India’s ministries of external affairs, commerce and industry, petroleum and natural gas, and power, as well as to the Brics 2026 sherpa Sudhakar Dalela on 3 and 4 September remained unanswered.
India last hosted the Brics summit in 2021, when it was virtual due to covid restrictions. The summit had produced some concrete outcomes, including the adoption of a counter-terrorism action plan and support for a Brics digital public goods platform.