BRICS and the Global South’s Historical Moment

Source: Outlook India | Original Published At: 2026-09-12 16:41:33 UTC

Key Points

• The 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13 comes at an unusually consequential moment.
• India’s challenge as chair is not to choose between the West and an anti-Western coalition, but to demonstrate that a more representative international order can coexist with engagement across competing power centres.
• The New Delhi Declaration may mark an important step in the transition from demanding representation within the existing order to helping shape the rules of the next one.
• The real test for BRICS is not whether it can become an anti-Western bloc, but whether it can help create an international system in which no single power or group of powers monopolises rule-making or narrative-setting.