BRICS adopts New Delhi Declaration amid internal divisions over conflicts and Western sanctions

Somewhere between the mushroom kebabs and the millet pulao, Indian coverage of the 18th BRICS summit developed a parallel track. On one, there were 11 heads of government and a 45-page declaration. On the other, there was a tote bag and a menu card.The Ministry of External Affairs had curated media kits for visiting delegates as part of telling the “India Story”, and a certain amount of unboxing footage duly appeared. Then came the counter-argument from journalists: reporters are at a summit to cover it with objectivity and depth, and the only thing a press kit needs is “a programme schedule and relevant text”. Journalists are at events to cover them with suitable objectivity & depth, not to gush over goodies. The ONLY thing a journalist’s kit should contain is a programme schedule & relevant text. https://t.co/oJKHVH03Er— Ruhi Tewari (@RuhiTewari) September 11, 2026 Then there was controversy over food. The gala dinner was entirely vegetarian: khandvi mille-feuille and pan-grilled mushroom kebabs to start, paneer lababdar and Himalayan morels in the main course, shahdoot firni and jalebi with fruit cream to close. The Congress read this as the BJP exporting vegetarianism.At the same timeWe see great tyranny against movement of cattle, sale of meat in this era. 1.All of this culminates in this kind of menu that’s so bad that foreign visitors will avoid.https://t.co/4Zif24pldV any case I imagine Putin and Xi have their own cooks and diets. But… https://t.co/LKApOWdAqu— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) September 13, 2026 Questions were raised over the actual economic prowess of BRICS members. Economist Surjit Bhalla pointed out that BRICS rose from 21.9 per cent of world income in 2011 to 28.9 per cent in 2025, but that with China removed, the remaining ten members went from 11.9 per cent to 11.5 per cent. His verdict: “They did not rise. They fell.” But what linked garnish, seating and arithmetic is the main event and its declaration, which according to some “was boring”. C Raja Mohan made the point most precisely in The Indian Express, arguing that Delhi’s diplomatic success lay in keeping BRICS “boring” amid the rhetorical excess that usually surrounds these summits – a declaration that reaffirmed the forum’s political diversity rather than staging the ideological crusade against the West that its cheerleaders want and its critics assume. The Chinese participation was a substantial moment, with foreign media outlets, including The Guardian noting the “public display of thawing relations” at a moment of shaky American dominance. However, further down the food chain, the projection got sillier. An Indian journalist detected a Pakistan angle in the declaration; a Chinese analyst detected a Taiwan angle in the same document. There is no mention of Pakistan in this statement, which is exactly what China would have pressed for and got. Meaning, India conceded on the wording to ensure everyone signs on it. And China had used similar words to condemn the attack right after it happened. So no narrative… https://t.co/o3kigYFZ0W— Angshuman Choudhury (@angshuman_ch) September 13, 2026 No, the Indian read out doesn’t mention Taiwan. https://t.co/LudgO3jGHq— Sana Hashmi | 胡莎娜 (@sanahashmi1) September 13, 2026 Meanwhile, at home, the editorials converged on the verdict and then split on what it meant. Almost all scored the summit as a procedural success. The Hindu offered three yardsticks – participation at the highest levels, attention to intra-BRICS trade mechanisms, and consensus forged in a time of war – and credited India’s fourth chairship with reinforcing its standing as a “Global South balancer with easy access to both sides of a divided world”. (Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister arrived after the session at which the statement was adopted, which is its own kind of position paper.) Business Standard filed under the headline “showy summitry” and still conceded the outcomes exceeded expectations. Hindustan Times reached past the summit for Sallust: “Through harmony, small things grow; through discord, the greatest fall.” The Indian Express stated the declaration’s strength lay in “the spectacular headlines it did not make”.The disagreement is over what the silences signify. The text left out the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the killing of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s retaliation against its Gulf neighbours and Russia’s war in Ukraine, while taking a notably strong line on Israel's conduct in Palestine and Lebanon and hammering unilateral sanctions and coercive measures at length. The Economic Times read the pattern as design, that the Global South was demonstrating that it, too, can pick and choose its moral crusades, and recast sanctions from rules-based order into plain coercion. The Hindu BusinessLine noticed the same asymmetry more drily: BRICS called out the United States over Palestine without naming it as an aggressor anywhere else. The Tribune granted the diplomatic achievement and then called it “a reminder of the limits of consensus in a deeply divided world”.Business Standard declined to be impressed by the destination: the New Development Bank remains small and dependent on the western financial system, and had to suspend loans to founding member Russia after the 2022 sanctions; the alternative-currency project has foundered; and beyond representing the Global South, discernible gains are hard to identify. Hence its closing verdict, that “Brics remains a benign grouping in search of an objective”.On China, the caution was near-universal.Business Standard treated Xi Jinping’s attendance – after seven years away, and after his conspicuous absence from the G20 Delhi hosted in 2023 – as a genuine advance in cooperative diplomacy, then warned that expectations must be tempered by China’s past conduct on the ground. The Telegraph placed the Xi meeting in a set with Putin and Pezeshkian and drew the wider lesson: “In a fluid world, keeping options open is smart foreign policy.” India’s real product at this summit was its own optionality. Business Line called BRICS “a fractious grouping, with China exercising overweening influence”, and hedged even its endorsement of local-currency settlement: the arrangement helps India only if third-party demand grows for currencies other than the yuan.1/ BRICS went from 21.9% of world income in 2011 to 28.9% in 2025.Now take out China.The other ten members went from 11.9% to 11.5%.They did not rise. They fell. pic.twitter.com/rq18XYMIA1— Surjit Bhalla (@surjitbhalla) September 13, 2026 Business Line cited BRICS at 40 per cent of global GDP and 26 per cent of world trade; Bhalla’s numbers described who inside that total is generating the momentum.Together they pose the question no editorial took up directly, whether 10 economies whose combined share of world income has barely moved in 15 years can build institutions that don’t end up denominated in another currency.

The Delhi BRICS summit has produced an unusual diplomatic outcome: a grouping marked by deep geopolitical contradictions has nevertheless spoken with one voice. The unanimous adoption of the New Delhi Declaration is therefore more significant than the document’s length or diplomatic language. It demonstrates that countries divided over Ukraine, West Asia, Iran, Russia and their relationship with the United States can still discover enough common ground to act collectively. For India, the most important achievement is the declaration’s unequivocal commitment to zero tolerance towards terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and its condemnation of the April 2025 Pahalgam terrorist attack, in which 26 civilians were killed. At the same time, its criticism of unilateral tariffs and sanctions carries a message for Donald Trump, while the summit has revealed emerging possibilities in India’s equations with China and Russia.India’s Distinctive Gains The Pahalgam reference gives the declaration a clear Indian imprint. By specifically mentioning the attack and calling for action against terror financing, recruitment and safe havens, New Delhi has strengthened its long-standing argument that terrorism must be confronted without political selectivity.This is particularly significant because BRICS brings together countries with sharply different security interests. Securing consensus on terrorism was consequently not merely a drafting achievement but a demonstration of India's diplomatic ability to build agreement among difficult partners.The second gain is that India prevented BRICS from becoming an explicitly anti-Western platform. The declaration criticises unilateral tariffs, non-tariff barriers and sanctions, but stops short of turning the grouping into an ideological counter-alliance against the United States.The third is India's continuing leadership of the Global South. Calls for reform of the United Nations Security Council and international financial institutions reinforce New Delhi's demand for greater representation of developing countries in global decision-making.A Message Trump Cannot Ignore Donald Trump is unlikely to be comfortable with the direction of the Delhi declaration. Its criticism of unilateral tariffs directly challenges the philosophy behind his use of trade barriers as an instrument of economic pressure. The BRICS emphasis on local-currency settlements and greater resilience against external financial pressure will also attract Washington's attention:But it would be wrong to interpret this as a collective declaration of war against American influence. India has carefully avoided that trap. Its relationship with Washington remains strategically important, and its objective is not to replace one dependency with another.The message from New Delhi is more measured: a multipolar world cannot be constructed according to the preferences of one power. This may complicate India's trade negotiations with Washington, particularly if Trump adopts a more confrontational approach, but it need not derail an India-US trade agreement. India's ability to engage simultaneously with America, China and Russia could instead provide greater negotiating space.Modi-Xi Opens Another Door The Modi-Xi meeting has added a major bilateral dimension to the summit. After the Galwan clash and years of military confrontation and political distrust, the two leaders have begun rebuilding a channel of engagement.Xi's assertion that India and China are partners rather than rivals, and Modi's insistence that differences should not become disputes, indicate a conscious attempt to prevent the border issue from paralysing the entire relationship.Their commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement of the boundary question is important. Yet it should not be exaggerated into a border breakthrough. The real test lies ahead: whether military restraint can become permanent, whether confidence-building mechanisms can be strengthened and whether economic ties can be insulated from recurring political tensions.For India, the appropriate policy is engagement without complacency. China can be an economic partner, a strategic competitor and a security challenge at the same time.Putin and the Wider Strategic Picture Vladimir Putin's meeting with Modi reinforces another pillar of India's strategic balancing. Russia remains important to India's defence, energy and broader strategic interests, even as Moscow's relationship with Beijing becomes increasingly close.India therefore has to manage the India-China-Russia triangle without becoming subordinate to any one relationship. Improved India-China ties could reduce one source of strategic pressure while allowing New Delhi to preserve its longstanding Russian partnership and simultaneously deepen cooperation with the United States.Iran is another country whose importance will grow. Its membership of BRICS, energy resources and geographical importance to India's connectivity with Central Asia give Tehran a continuing place in New Delhi's Eurasian calculations. India will need to maintain this relationship while avoiding entanglement in West Asia's increasingly dangerous rivalries.China’s Turn in 2027 China's assumption of the BRICS chair in 2027 will be closely watched in New Delhi. Beijing inherits a grouping that has acquired greater economic weight but also greater internal complexity.China could use its chairmanship to strengthen BRICS as a broad and inclusive platform for the Global South. But any attempt to transform it into an overt counterweight to the West could expose the contradictions that India successfully managed during its own chairmanship.The challenge for India will be to ensure that BRICS remains inclusive, consensus-driven and development-oriented rather than becoming an instrument of great-power rivalry.From Declaration to DeliveryThe Delhi summit has also exposed BRICS' fundamental weakness. Its members want a stronger collective voice but do not share a common geopolitical outlook. They disagree over conflicts, trade, energy and relations with the West. Expansion has increased the group's influence while simultaneously making consensus more difficult.Its economic ambitions face equally formidable obstacles. Greater use of local currencies, alternative payment mechanisms, stronger intra-BRICS trade and resilient supply chains require practical systems, not merely political declarations.BRICS Summit: Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian Slams Western Sanctions, Calls For Trade In National Currencies The fundamental question is therefore whether BRICS can become an effective instrument of cooperation rather than simply a forum for dissatisfaction with the existing order.India has demonstrated that contradictory forces can be managed through patient diplomacy and carefully calibrated language. That may ultimately prove to be the most important achievement of the Delhi summit.The declaration is only the beginning. The credibility of BRICS will now depend on whether its members can transform consensus into action. For India, the larger diplomatic task is to keep every door open—towards Washington, Moscow, Beijing and the Global South—without allowing any of them to dictate its strategic choices. (Writer is a strategic affairs columnist and senior political analyst based in Shimla. He is also Contributing Editor with The South Asian times from New York) 

The BRICS New Delhi Declaration stands as an outcome of some very nuanced balancing, with credit firmly due to New Delhi for steering this outcome through a labyrinth of competing geopolitical interests. We take that as a sign of its coming of age. A direct read of the text reveals no explicit denunciation of the havoc in West Asia created by the egregious excesses of the rampaging instincts of both the United States and Israel, not necessarily in that order. Washington and Tel Aviv are not going to be exactly jumping with joy over the sharp systemic critiques levelled against unilateral sanctions, military occupation, and throttling of supplies, and, of course, President Trump’s remarkable trade policies. But there is certainly critique, plenty of it, in what BRICS expects in terms of outcomes. By reiterating the expectations on the Palestinian situation and Gaza, BRICS has rekindled hopes of a just redressal, even if none of those sweeping outcomes are going to be emergent realities overnight. It is there as reminders for all of us.What the BRICS Delhi Declaration does is shape global agendas, give a voice to the under-voiced, and situate the Global South more centrally. Expectations of the BRICS sceptics have no doubt been somewhat dampened by the deft tightrope walk performed in getting Iran and the UAE to sign on to the declaration. This does not mean the differences have narrowed, just as the differences between Riyadh and Tehran—undoubtedly more complicated by the Houthi military run along the Red Sea Coast—remain vast. But they have been efficiently papered over, which is good enough for the purposes of a summit of this kind. The summit gives cause to reflect on the efficacy of such grand gala diplomatic jamborees. Here we point out the complete absence of any meaningful mention of Ukraine. It is a magician's trick worthy of Houdini's disappearing act. It is there in the headlines we read but magically hidden in the declaration, an optical illusion worth every bit of our applause. The document does not attempt to solve the world's most intractable conflicts overnight, nor does it establish an immediate replacement for Western financial supremacy. Instead, it serves as a sophisticated diplomatic pressure valve. It puts together the structural grievances of emerging economies, channelling them into constructive demands for multilateral reform while protecting individual member states from diplomatic isolation. By prioritising consensus over confrontation, New Delhi managed to hold together a fragile coalition spanning adversarial middle powers and global heavyweights alike. The resulting text walks a fine line between critique and engagement, proving that the bloc can accommodate profound internal contradictions without fracturing its foundational mission. It is a bit like navigating the Hormuz these days. It stands as the clearest indication that BRICS is alive and kicking. Let us raise a toast to that.