India’s upcoming BRICS summit in September 2026 marks a significant shift from previous chairmanships, reflecting an expanded membership and a larger agenda.
India has chaired BRICS three times before — in 2012, in Goa in 2016, and in 2021 — but the summit it hosts at New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam on September 12 and 13 looks nothing like those earlier turns. Here is what has changed. A much bigger room. The last time India ran BRICS, in 2021, the group had five members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and that summit was held entirely over video because of Covid. This year’s meeting is in person, and the guest list is far longer. According to the government’s official BRICS 2026 website, the bloc now has 11 full members: the original five plus Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who came in from January 2024, and Indonesia from January 2025. India has also invited 10 “partner countries”, a category that did not exist in 2021, among them Belarus, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam.
BRICS at 20, and a pitch to the Global South
Twenty years on. The Ministry of External Affairs notes that 2026 marks two decades since BRICS was founded. India’s theme for the year is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” which the MEA ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Humanity First” pitch and a focus on the Global South.
Putin’s coming, Xi likely too
Big names back in the room. The Kremlin has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will travel to Delhi, his second India trip in under a year. Chinese President Xi Jinping could also attend the meet, which, if he attends, would be his first visit to India since the 2019 Mamallapuram meeting with Prime Minister Modi, held before the 2020 Galwan clashes soured relations. Reports suggest Xi may bring a delegation of around 400 officials, far larger than his 2019 contingent. Beijing, however, has not formally confirmed the trip.
A tougher backdrop
In 2021 the talk was of Covid recovery and Afghanistan. This time the summit meets in the middle of a live trade fight with the United States. In 2025, President Donald Trump hit Indian goods with tariffs of up to 50%, half of it a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil. Those duties were rolled back to around 18% in February 2026, after New Delhi signalled it would trim Russian crude imports. But the pressure has since returned: in August 2026 the US Senate passed a bill that could impose tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian energy, India among them. The measure still needs to clear the House of Representatives and could be waived by the president. It leaves India in a delicate spot — hosting Russia and China while trying to protect ties with the United States.
India’s digital pitch