India Set to Host 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Bringing Xi and Putin Together
New Delhi welcomes leaders from across the Global South as India’s year-long BRICS chairship culminates in a high-stakes two-day summit at Bharat Mandapam.
India is preparing to host the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi on September 12–13, marking the culmination of the country’s year-long chairship of the influential bloc. The summit, to be held at Bharat Mandapam, comes at a moment of heightened geopolitical tension worldwide, and will bring together heads of state from an expanded, 11-nation grouping for the first time in five years since India last hosted the gathering in 2021.
A Chairship Built on Resilience and Cooperation
India assumed the BRICS chairship on January 1, 2026, under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar formally unveiled the chairship’s logo, theme and official website on January 13, describing the effort as an extension of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Humanity First and People-Centric” vision for the bloc.
Over the course of the year, India has held more than 350 meetings across over 25 Indian cities, spanning foreign ministers, national security advisers, sectoral ministers and senior officials. The agenda has widened well beyond traditional economic cooperation to include digital public infrastructure, fintech, artificial intelligence, health, agriculture, energy, space, disaster management, startups and tourism.
Security featured prominently in the run-up to the summit. At a June meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers in New Delhi, member countries discussed a range of non-traditional security challenges facing the bloc.
Who’s Coming
At least eight of the eleven BRICS heads of state or government are expected to attend in person, alongside a wide roster of outreach invitees and partner-country representatives. Confirmed and expected attendees include:
- Xi Jinping, President of China — his first visit to India since the 2019 informal summit in Chennai
- Vladimir Putin, President of Russia — his second visit to India within a year, following the December 2025 India-Russia Annual Summit
- Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran
A range of partner-country leaders are also expected to travel to Delhi, including Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, among others. Some countries are expected to send senior officials rather than heads of state.
Notably, a bilateral meeting between Putin and Xi is also planned on the sidelines of the summit — a pairing that will draw close attention given the current state of global alignments.
What’s on the Table
The summit convenes amid geopolitical conflict, energy market disruption, trade tensions and mounting concern over global supply-chain resilience. Leaders are expected to focus on:
- Strengthening intra-BRICS trade and investment
- Reform of global financial institutions, including the Bretton Woods system and IMF quota formulas
- Cooperation on digital manufacturing, green energy and AI governance
- Securing critical and technology supply chains
- Global governance reform and a stronger voice for the Global South
India’s balancing act with China will be closely watched. Ties between the two Asian giants have shown signs of a cautious thaw since Modi and Xi met on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin in August 2025 — direct flights have since resumed, and India has eased some restrictions on Chinese investment. But the relationship remains fragile: the border dispute is unresolved, and a fresh patrol confrontation was reported in Arunachal Pradesh in July. India has also pressed Beijing to improve market access and address a bilateral trade deficit exceeding $100 billion.
Why It Matters
BRICS — originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — has expanded rapidly in recent years, adding Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE in 2024 and Indonesia in 2025. The 11-member bloc’s combined weight now gives its deliberations outsized influence over debates on the future shape of global governance.
For India, playing host is as much about diplomatic positioning as substance: New Delhi has framed its chairship as an opportunity to cement its leadership role within the Global South, even as it continues to navigate a complex, sometimes uneasy relationship with both Washington and Beijing. Officials have spoken of seeking a “big BRICS family photo” — a symbolic marker of unity as the summit opens on September 12.
Sources
