THE 18th BRICS Summit, held in New Delhi on 12-13 September 2026 under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” was expected to be a defining moment for the bloc. Under Modi’s presidency, the summit should have reaffirmed BRICS’ role as a credible counterweight to Western-dominated institutions. Instead, India’s conduct cast a shadow over the proceedings, raising questions about its commitment to the organization’s founding principles and leading many observers to conclude that New Delhi weakened the spirit of BRICS.

Conceived in 2001 to reshape global governance, BRICS united Brazil, Russia, India and China, later joined by South Africa. The bloc gradually expanded beyond economics into political and strategic cooperation. Initiatives such as BRICS Pay, de-dollarization mechanisms, the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation and frameworks for AI governance reflected its ambition to reduce dependence on Western financial and technological systems. Institutional pillars such as the New Development Bank, capitalized at $100 billion and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement strengthened the bloc’s foundations. Discussions on conducting trade in local currencies underscored BRICS’ objective of reducing dollar dominance in international finance.

India was welcomed as a founding member because of its vast market, historical ties with Russia and credentials as a leading voice of the Non-Aligned Movement. Yet since 2014, New Delhi has steadily moved away from its traditional posture, drawing closer to the United States and Israel. Its growing alignment with Western strategic objectives has increasingly........

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