Expert Explains | What the BRICS 2026 summit achieved – and what challenges remain

Source: The Indian Express | Original Published At: 2026-09-15 09:27:41 UTC

Key Points

• The 2026 BRICS summit under India’s presidency produced the New Delhi Declaration, bringing together members with diverging positions on issues including the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack and tensions in West Asia.
• India and China used the summit for a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping aimed at stabilizing ties, with discussions on trade, supply chains, people-to-people exchanges, and border peace.
• India proposed a BRICS Continuity and Implementation Mechanism for the troika of outgoing, current, and incoming chairs to track outcomes and maintain momentum across presidencies.
• India’s presidency emphasized economic partnership, development finance, infrastructure, investment, science and technology, agroecology, fintech, and multilateral reform.
• BRICS trade with India rose from $203 billion in 2020-21 to $417 billion in 2025-26, prompting focus on customs cooperation, trade finance, supply chains, and digital payments.
• Cross-border payments in national currencies remain under development; BRICS has not agreed on a common technical architecture, shared settlement mechanism, or launched BRICS Pay.
• Implementation challenges include different exchange-rate regimes, capital controls, sanctions exposure, banking regulations, payment standards, and trade asymmetries, especially China’s dominant share.