Sep 14, 2026 12:25 pm IST

Opinion | For China, BRICS Is The 'Poster Child' For All Its Grand Ambitions

The grouping offers China something Trump can't easily sanction away

Anushka Saxena Anushka Saxena Columnist

Anushka Saxena Columnist

China's President Xi Jinping arrived in India for the 18th BRICS Summit under Delhi's chairship. Not only was his visit consequential for being the first in seven years, but it also came at a time when India and China are going through the motions of normalisation. China's delegation, too, was reported to be as large as 400 people, and its key participants were Cai Qi, Politburo Standing Committee member and director of the CPC Central Committee's General Office, and Wang Yi, Politburo member and one of China's longest-serving foreign ministers.

Clearly, this doesn't seem to be just about niceties anymore, and what China aims to gain from BRICS is more institutional than rhetorical. There are three key aspects to this momentum, especially in the run-up to China's own presidency starting January 2027.

Firstly, BRICS is like the economic pillar of a broader Chinese argument about who gets to write global rules. At the recent SCO Summit in Bishkek, Xi described the SCO as an organisation whose "heart beats with the Global South", and placed BRICS "at the forefront" of this perceived grouping of developing economies. Such an articulation does two things - it pitches China as the voice of the so-called Global South and furthers the idea that the BRICS is competing with the West head-on.

Consequently, the grouping becomes a platform for Beijing to gradually normalise the renminbi for local currency trade to further the cause of........

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