At a glance

  • What: the BRICS New Delhi Declaration — "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability"
  • Adopted: 12 September 2026, at the 18th BRICS Summit
  • Where: Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi
  • India's chairship: over 400 meetings and engagements across 30 cities
  • Next chair: China, for the 19th Summit in 2027

Leaders of the eleven BRICS members adopted the New Delhi Declaration at Bharat Mandapam on 12 September, the first day of the 18th BRICS Summit. It runs to 140-plus paragraphs and closes India's fourth turn in the chair.

The Declaration records the scale of that year in the leaders' own words: "over four hundred meetings and engagements at the level of Ministers, Parliamentarians, Heads of Agencies, Officials, Experts, Businesses and People in thirty cities across India".

What the Declaration says

On the United Nations. Leaders reiterated support for comprehensive reform of the UN, including the Security Council, "with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries" — the position India has pressed for two decades.

On terrorism. The Declaration condemns acts of terrorism "as criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, whenever, wherever and by whomsoever committed", and condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025, in which 26 people were killed. A BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan is carried forward.

On payments. The BRICS Payment Task Force was commended for work on the cross-border interoperability of payment and messaging channels, under the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative set out in the earlier Kazan and Rio declarations.

Where India's chairship left its mark

Several outcomes carry the name of the Indian city where the groundwork was done:

  • Indore — the 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting led to agreement on BRICS AGRIN, an Agro-Inputs, Genetic Resources and Information Network, described in the Declaration as collaborative, non-binding and farmer-centric.
  • Chandigarh — the 16th Health Ministers' Meeting produced the BRICS Mission for Healthy Lifestyle and a roadmap on healthy-lifestyle promotion, both endorsed by leaders, alongside a proposed expert group on traditional, complementary and integrative medicine.
  • Agra — the first-ever BRICS SME Forum was convened, and the Declaration commends its report on strengthening small-business access to finance and technology.
  • Bhubaneswar — the 13th BRICS Education Ministers' Meeting adopted its own declaration in August, covering foundational literacy, skills, research and mutual recognition of qualifications.

Leaders also noted the achievements of the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation, welcomed India's 2026 chairship of the Kimberley Process on rough diamonds, and recorded the operationalisation of the BRICS Centre for Industrial Competencies with UNIDO.

On the sidelines

On 12 September the Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with the Prime Ministers of Vietnam, Malaysia and Ethiopia, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and with President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran.

Running alongside the summit, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of External Affairs held the BRICS Bharat Innovates Exposition at Bharat Mandapam on 11–12 September, putting 37 Indian deep-tech startups in front of BRICS leaders, chief executives and investors. It followed the first Bharat Innovates in Nice in June 2026, where 120 Indian startups secured funding commitments of $254.5 million across 1,350 business meetings.

The wider record

  • G20, 2023: the same venue hosted India's G20 summit, ending a presidency of more than 200 meetings across 60 cities that made the African Union a permanent member on India's proposal. See Global Outreach & Summits →
  • Diplomacy: membership of the Quad, BRICS, SCO, I2U2 and the G20, and three Voice of the Global South summits. See Diplomacy & Global Standing →
  • Digital public infrastructure: UPI handled more than 240 billion transactions in 2025-26 — the system BRICS payment work keeps circling back to. See the numbers →

Our curtain-raiser from the day before: New Delhi hosts the 18th BRICS Summit. For the story behind the welcome: BRICS 2026: The Message of 'Atithi Devo Bhava' Takes the Global Stage.

The summit continues on 13 September. We will add the Outreach / BRICS Plus Dialogue outcomes and any separate Chair's Statement once they are published.

Sources: BRICS New Delhi Declaration, 12 September 2026 (full text) · PIB: BRICS Bharat Innovates Exposition · BRICS India 2026 (official) · Ministry of External Affairs: 18th BRICS Summit · G20, diplomacy and UPI figures: India Unfolding