The 18th BRICS Summit will begin at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi today, with the national capital putting its finishing touches in place for the grand event.
The two-day Summit will bring together eleven major emerging and developing economies, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, India, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE. The theme of India’s Chairship 2026 is “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
World leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan and Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed Ali will participate in the Summit. Brazil will be represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira. Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud will also participate in the Summit.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung are the other Heads of State who will attend the Summit. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and President of New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff are among the Heads of International Organisations who will participate in the event.
The President of Russia and Foreign Minister of Brazil arrived in the national capital last night to participate in the Summit. The President of South Africa is set to arrive this morning. Presidents of Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Philippines, and Burundi, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Ethiopia, are scheduled to arrive later today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit. Akashvani correspondent reports that the grouping was formalised during the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2006.
The First BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16th June 2009. BRIC expanded into BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa following the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in New York in September 2010. South Africa participated first time in the Third BRICS Summit, held in Sanya, China, in April 2011. BRICS further expanded in January 2024, when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE became full members of the grouping.
India assumed the BRICS Chairship on 1st January this year. This marks India’s fourth Chairship of BRICS. India had earlier chaired BRICS in 2012, 2016 and 2021.
