Sep 13, 2026 00:23 am IST

Building BRICS In New Delhi

For India as the host nation, chairing the summit tests the core tenet of its modern foreign policy: strategic autonomy.

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

Shashi Tharoor MP, Columnist

The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi is taking place at a critical juncture for global geopolitics. Coming two decades after the founding of the original grouping, this gathering carries heightened weight as the expanded alliance- encompassing eleven full member states including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and a half-in-half-out Saudi Arabia - attempts to define its operational identity and institutional power in an increasingly fragmented world order.

Under India's chairmanship, the summit brings together a complex array of world leaders for high-profile bilateral engagements, highlighted by interactions between host Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but also with other states represented at the level of Head of State or Government, including such key partners as Egypt and South Africa.

For India as the host nation, chairing the summit tests the core tenet of its modern foreign policy: strategic autonomy. India sits at the intersection of rival global blocs, holding active membership in Western-leaning security groupings like the Quad (with Australia, Japan and the US) and I2U2 (with Israel, the UAE and the US) while simultaneously steering major Global South alliances like BRICS and serving as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation led by China and Russia. The summit provides a rare venue for high-level personal diplomacy. Prime Minister Modi's bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, during the Chinese leader's first visit to India in seven years, signals ongoing efforts to stabilise the Line of Actual Control and normalise trade and investment ties following years of border friction. At the same time, talks with Russia........

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