India’s 2026 BRICS Presidency to Boost Global Economic Influence and Strengthen Multilateral Cooperation
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With its membership expanding and growing economic and geopolitical influence rising, experts described the BRICS group as reaching a critical juncture during preparations for the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
Key Takeaways
- Experts say BRICS has reached a critical juncture as India prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi during its fourth presidency term.
- The Chintan Research Foundation convened a BRICS Dialogue with diplomats, policymakers and academics to assess the bloc’s evolving global role.
- India’s presidency theme, ‘Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability,’ aims to strengthen BRICS as a collaborative platform.
- Former MEA Secretary Dammu Ravi highlighted BRICS’ growing weight in the emerging world economic order.
The Chintan Research Foundation facilitated a BRICS Dialogue, bringing together diplomats, policymakers, and academics to evaluate BRICS’ changing position in world politics.
Experts noted that India’s fourth term in the BRICS presidency comes at a time marked by intensified geopolitical rivalries, economic polarization, rapid technological shifts, and urgent calls for renewal in global governance frameworks.
Steered by the theme ‘Building Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability,’ India seeks to strengthen BRICS as a vehicle for tangible, collaborative partnership.
Dammu Ravi, previously the MEA Secretary for Economic Relations, emphasized BRICS’ importance to the Global South and its increasing significance amid an evolving international landscape, highlighting trilateral cooperation as essential despite member variances.
He clarified that BRICS prioritizes diversification away from dependence on the US dollar toward constructing novel trade and financing pathways, pointing to the New Development Bank’s operations supporting currency-based settlements and proposing India spearhead creating a BRICS Secretariat.
Shishir Priyadarshi, president of the CRF and ex-WTO director, identified trade, financial collaboration, technology, and strategic alignment as foundational elements of BRICS’ multidimensional partnership, while acknowledging persistent political disputes present challenges.
BRICS’ agenda has evolved far beyond economic matters to incorporate institutional reforms, commercial exchanges, capital flows, technological advancement, artificial intelligence, clean energy, environmental stewardship, digital progression, and cooperative efforts among Southern nations.
With expanded membership representing approximately half of the global populace and nearly four tenths of worldwide economic output, BRICS has significantly elevated its presence in shaping international business policies and diplomatic conversations.
Former BRICS Sherpa Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya observed that after centering initial efforts on economic development, the bloc now engages more thoroughly with worldwide institutions and global cyber-related concerns, calling for issue-focused multilateralism and expanded authority in global norm-setting.
Professor Srikanth Kondapalli argued that within our nascent multipolar era, BRICS provides a versatile framework helping participating states construct adaptability and alternative alliances without entirely severing connections to established systems.
Heena Makhaja observed that BRICS enlargement has produced power disparities, complicating consensus processes regarding matters like establishing a secretariat situated in New Delhi.
ORF scholar Professor Harsh V Pant contended that divergent geopolitical orientations across BRICS states have muddied what was originally an economic alliance, questioning whether BRICS can genuinely elevate India’s regional ambitions.
RIS specialist Sabyasachi Saha invoked India’s vision of universal interdependence—Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—to stress that BRICS must deliver substantial mutual gains transcending direct bilateral pacts.
Pritam Banerjee resonated with appeals for creative monetary instruments within the New Development Bank to enhance cooperative finance.
The discussion examined targeted collaboration opportunities such as a joint grain distribution system, seamless electronic trade solutions, easing non-tariff constraints, and strengthening settlement using domestic currencies to fortify economic durability and illustrate BRICS capabilities.
A fundamental acknowledgment emerged that BRICS’ enduring weight relies on converting statements into deeds, given that its enlarged membership expands representative reach while simultaneously heightening the challenge of uniting diverse viewpoints.
Analysts underlined that India’s forthcoming 2026 presidency must design enduring structures since stability across generations remains essential as China assumes chairmanship next year to uphold momentum.
Attendees uniformly affirmed that BRICS currently sits upon a decisive turning point where successful transformation of plural perspectives into complementary advantages and translation of political objectives into concrete deliveries will define its standing within the global hierarchy.
