India Moves To Bridge BRICS Divisions Ahead Of New Delhi Summit
India is facing a delicate diplomatic test as it prepares to host the BRICS leaders’ summit, with differences among members threatening to complicate efforts to produce a common position on key global and economic issues.
New Delhi says it is working to build consensus among the expanded 11-member bloc ahead of the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit on 12-13 September.
Randhir Jaiswal, Additional Secretary and spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said India regarded all BRICS members as partners and was committed to bringing them together.
“India is friends with all BRICS member countries. As friends, it is our intention to bring all our partners together,” Jaiswal told journalists and content creators at a dinner in New Delhi ahead of the summit.
Asked how India was addressing divisions within the group, he pointed to negotiations on the summit’s joint declaration.
“You will have to wait for the joint statement,” he said. “The joint statement is being negotiated, and there you will see how India brings everybody together.”
The task is complicated by competing interests within the enlarged bloc.
Tensions involving Iran and the United Arab Emirates, India and China’s strategic rivalry, and the long-running Egypt-Ethiopia dispute over the Nile waters all present challenges to consensus.
Economic differences also remain, including debate over reducing reliance on traditional international financial systems and expanding the use of national currencies in trade.
Despite these fault lines, India has placed development at the centre of its 2026 BRICS chairmanship, with priorities including resilience, innovation, sustainability and a stronger Global South voice.
Its proposed BRICS Economic Partnership 2030 also seeks to boost trade in services, strengthen supply chains and improve access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises.
For New Delhi, the summit will therefore be about more than producing a declaration.
It will test whether an increasingly diverse BRICS can turn its growing membership into greater collective influence without allowing internal rivalries to overwhelm its shared agenda.
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