Can NATO Confront BRICS Nations? Which Bloc Is More Powerful?

Source: ABP News | Original Published At: 2026-09-13 06:13:43 UTC

Key Points

• The first day of the BRICS Summit 2026 in Delhi included meetings and discussions, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a dinner for participating leaders and guests.
• NATO is a military alliance based on collective defense, while BRICS is primarily an economic and political cooperation forum without a collective defense treaty.
• NATO's combined defense spending is estimated at more than $1.4 trillion, with the United States accounting for about $935 billion, compared with roughly $480 billion for BRICS countries.
• BRICS countries have more active military personnel, exceeding 5 million, mainly due to the armed forces of China, India, and Russia, while NATO's 32 members have about 3.3 million active personnel.
• Nuclear arsenals are broadly comparable: Russia, China, and India together have more than 6,000 nuclear weapons, while NATO's nuclear-armed members have more than 5,800.
• NATO has advantages in high-end air, naval, intelligence, surveillance, and networked warfare, while BRICS countries have stronger ground warfare assets, including tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery.
• In nominal GDP, NATO countries remain stronger, but in purchasing power parity terms BRICS accounts for about 40% of the global economy and holds large population and natural resource advantages.