By The Diplomat | Created at 2026-09-16 17:36:55 | Updated at 2026-09-19 10:23:23
2 days ago
India hosted the 18th BRICS Summit with considerable success and impact. This year’s summit generated consensus on several major issues that concern not only BRICS members but also much of the world beyond the U.S.-dominated West.
In the wake of this summit, one can legitimately argue that BRICS is emerging as a formidable grouping capable of challenging the global hegemony of the United States and the G7. More importantly, it is evolving into a global platform that can help its members move, as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it, from being “rule takers” to becoming “rule makers.”
India achieved something that had seemed nearly impossible only a few months ago: securing the unanimous endorsement of a joint declaration by all BRICS nations. At the May meeting of BRICS foreign ministers, deep internal disagreements — particularly between India, which was reluctant to condemn Israel and the United States, and other members that sought such condemnation over the Israeli-U.S. attacks on Iran — prevented consensus. A separate dispute between the UAE and Iran over the wording of the document ultimately scuttled the proposed joint declaration, forcing the chair to issue only a summary of the discussions.
That failure highlighted the divisions within BRICS and raised serious questions about whether it could ever become a cohesive grouping. Its members include countries that are strategic rivals, such as India and China, as well as states directly at war with one another, such as the UAE and Iran. Yet India’s Ministry of External Affairs and its BRICS sherpas worked diligently to produce a draft acceptable to every member. All sides made significant compromises to reach consensus.
The resulting declaration sends a powerful signal: a united BRICS is prepared to engage with and reshape the global order — not by dismantling it, but by preserving its liberal foundations. This creates a striking reversal in global politics. The United States, which underwrote the liberal international order for more than seven decades, now appears determined to weaken it, tarnish its legitimacy, undermine core institutions such as the ICC and the ICJ, and render the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) increasingly irrelevant.
Contrary to the perception that BRICS seeks to challenge the U.S.-led global order, it is essentially pursuing a course correction. It seeks to ensure that the liberal order and its underlying principles are not diminished by double standards and unilateral actions, particularly those of the United States. BRICS is thus positioning itself as a defender of the fundamental principles upon which that order rests: state sovereignty, international law, international norms, and, above all, mutual respect among nations.
The New Delhi Declaration was remarkable and surprising in several respects. It remained consistent with the broad narrative advanced by India: that BRICS is not anti-American, anti-Western, or directed against any particular country. Rather, BRICS is an endeavor by states to come together to address common challenges and pursue mutually shared interests. What was particularly remarkable, however, was India’s ability to secure consensus on several highly contentious issues.
Four major features of the declaration deserve particular attention.
First, notwithstanding its carefully calibrated rhetoric, the declaration was strongly critical of U.S. trade and sanctions practices. It condemned unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures that distort trade and violate WTO rules. It also denounced unilateral economic and secondary sanctions imposed outside the authority of the UNSC, characterizing such measures as contrary to international law and harmful to the development, health, and food security of affected populations, particularly in the Global South (paragraphs 21–22).
Second, each of the three major BRICS powers — China, Russia, and India — managed to incorporate its particular priorities into the declaration. China secured a strong condemnation of unilateral sanctions, many of which are directed against it. Even sanctions targeting Iran indirectly affect China because it is the principal purchaser of Iranian oil. Russia, too, secured what it wanted: Ukraine was omitted. Far from criticizing Russia, the declaration remained entirely silent about the Ukraine war and its effects on global supply chains and the international order.
India, meanwhile, obtained the unified BRICS position it has consistently sought against cross-border terrorism, terrorist financing, and safe havens for terrorist groups (paragraph 40). The declaration condemns the April 22, 2025, terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, and explicitly calls for combating the cross-border movement of terrorists, terrorism financing, and terrorist safe havens. Although the paragraph does not mention Pakistan, it clearly advances, legitimizes, and showcases India’s concerns about its problematic neighbor and its policies aimed at destabilizing Kashmir through cross-border terrorism.
Third, perhaps the most astonishing feature of the declaration was its treatment of the war against Iran (paragraphs 28–29). The document protects the United States and Israel to some extent by declining to name them, but its criticism of their attacks on Iran is nevertheless unmistakable. It expresses concern about escalating tensions in West Asia, stresses the protection of civilian infrastructure and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, and condemns deliberate attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities operating under full IAEA safeguards as violations of international law. The declaration therefore affirms the protected status of Iran’s peaceful nuclear infrastructure and establishes that attacks against it are illegal, while offering no comparable criticism of Iran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbors.
Finally, the declaration’s extensive treatment of Palestine, followed by its discussion of Lebanon, constitutes a profound indictment of Israel even when Israel is not always explicitly named. It condemns forced displacement, starvation as a method of warfare, attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the obstruction of humanitarian assistance. It reaffirms the Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and return, supports full Palestinian membership in the United Nations, and reiterates its commitment to a sovereign Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital (paragraphs 30–34). It then condemns violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, calls explicitly on Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory, and denounces attacks against UNIFIL personnel and installations (paragraphs 35–36).
The declaration was not the only way in which BRICS spoke to the world; the summit’s optics were equally striking. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian received considerable prominence through several key bilateral meetings, his early arrival, and his participation in the BRICS Business Forum. The image of Modi, the host, walking hand in hand with Pezeshkian down the red carpet with visible warmth and affection was particularly telling. The red-carpet welcome suggested an Indian pivot away from Israel — a shift also reflected in the declaration’s direct condemnation of Israeli actions and its robust affirmation of Palestinian rights. Taken together, these developments indicate that India may now be moving away from the major mistake Modi made when he visited Israel in February, only days before Israel and the United States attacked Iran, and declared that India stood firmly with Israel.
Another highlight of the summit was the Iran-UAE meeting between the Iranian president and the UAE’s crown prince, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The meeting signaled that even states participating in the Abraham Accords and closely aligned with Israel and the United States now feel compelled to engage publicly with Iran. Moreover, the prominence accorded to the Iranian president, contrasted with the absence of the UAE’s ruler, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, suggested a noteworthy shift. Only four months earlier, the UAE had been able to block a BRICS declaration that would have condemned Israel and the United States. At the New Delhi summit, however, the UAE appeared — like India — to have recalibrated aspects of its foreign policy posture in a direction more accommodating toward Iran.
Although an important element of the BRICS narrative was that the grouping was not directed against the United States, the West, or any other country, the prominence accorded to Iran and Russia conveyed a more complicated message. Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin participated prominently in numerous events both within and beyond the formal BRICS proceedings. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also held a significant meeting with a Kashmiri delegation comprising three leading religious figures — Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi, and Molvi Imran Raza Ansari — a politically sensitive engagement rarely seen during a major summit hosted by India.
Taken together, these events appeared to send a clear message from India and BRICS to the West: however determined Western governments may be to turn Russia and Iran into pariah states, much of the Global South rejects their isolation and continues to embrace them as legitimate and consequential international actors.
Thus, while the New Delhi Declaration is softly critical of the United States, it is harshly critical of Israel, signaling a significant shift in the positions of countries such as India and the UAE. Without their support and concessions, such a forceful criticism of Israeli actions — and such an unequivocal affirmation of Palestinian rights — could not have secured unanimous approval. The summit also affirmed the growing convergence of interests among India, China, Russia, and Iran. All four states seek the emergence of a multipolar world and the resurgence of multilateralism in global governance. All in all, it was a highly successful summit for both India and BRICS.
