BRICS 2026 and the Dawn of a Multipolar World

Source: Times of India | Original Published At: 2026-09-13 07:02:00 UTC

Key Points

• The 18th BRICS Summit, hosted in New Delhi under India's chairmanship, is focusing on linking members' domestic payment systems for direct local-currency settlement.
• The New Delhi Declaration supports UN Security Council reform, IMF and World Bank voting-rights reform, and greater local-currency financing by the New Development Bank.
• BRICS has expanded from five founding members to eleven, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
• The declaration backs interoperable payment and messaging systems and frames local-currency settlement as resilience rather than de-dollarisation.
• It also opposes unilateral trade barriers, secondary sanctions and carbon border adjustment mechanisms as disproportionately affecting developing economies.
• Bank of America is reportedly working to link its payments infrastructure with India's UPI, reflecting growing use of interoperable local payment rails.