The two-day 18th BRICS Summit is being held in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026, with India as chair. It comes in the year BRICS completes 20 years since the grouping began as BRIC. Membership has grown from the original four emerging economies to 11 countries. India is hosting the summit for the fourth time, after 2012, 2016 and 2021.
India's 2026 chairship is centred on “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”. Its stated priorities include development, sustainability, innovation, trade, financial cooperation, supply chains, health, agriculture, and cooperation among developing economies.
The 11 BRICS members account for about 49.5% of the world's population, 40% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and 26% of global trade (UNCTAD, 2025; World Bank, 2025). At the same time, the members differ considerably in economic size, income levels, production, and trade patterns.
BRICS provides a forum for major emerging and developing economies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It has also created financial institutions and other cooperation mechanisms, while its members continue to trade and work with countries and economic groups outside BRICS.
Timeline
2001: Economist Jim O'Neill coined the term BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
2006: Brazil, Russia, India, and China began meeting as a group. Their first Foreign Ministers' meeting was held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.
2009: The first BRIC summit of leaders was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
2010: South Africa was invited to join BRIC.
2011: South Africa attended the Sanya Summit in China. BRIC became BRICS.
2012: India hosted the BRICS Summit for the first time.
2014: The Fortaleza Summit established the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.
2023: The Johannesburg Summit decided on a major expansion of BRICS.
2024: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined the grouping.
2025: Indonesia joined BRICS, taking membership to 11 (BRICS Secretariat, 2025).
2026: India assumed the BRICS chair on January 1 and is hosting the 18th Summit in New Delhi.
What exactly is BRICS?
BRICS is a grouping of emerging and developing economies that cooperate in economic, financial, social, and other areas.
It is not a customs union or a free-trade agreement. It has no common external tariff or single common market. Each member has its own trade rules, currency, economic policies, and agreements.
BRICS began as BRIC—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined in 2011, followed by the major expansion in 2024 and Indonesia in 2025.
Why was BRICS created?
The original members wanted greater coordination among major emerging economies and a larger role for them in international economic and financial institutions.
The members have also coordinated in forums and institutions such as the Group of 20 (G20), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank.
How did BRICS become a wider cooperation platform?
BRIC began mainly as an economic grouping. Government-level cooperation later expanded into areas such as finance, trade, agriculture, health, science and technology, education, and people-to-people exchanges.
BRICS now works through three broad areas: political and security cooperation, economic and financial cooperation, and cultural and people-to-people cooperation.
Why is BRICS described as a Global South platform?
The term “Global South” is generally used for developing and emerging economies, particularly in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other developing regions.
The expanded BRICS includes countries from these regions. Brazil represents Latin America. India, China, and Indonesia are major Asian members. South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia bring African economies into the grouping. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are members from the Middle East.
Does BRICS represent the whole Global South?
No. The members represent only part of the developing world. Many developing countries are outside BRICS.
BRICS also has partner countries, which can take part in selected meetings and activities.
How large is BRICS economically?
The grouping has grown significantly in trade. United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says intra-BRICS merchandise exports reached $1.17 trillion in 2024, more than 13 times the 2003 level.
Does that make BRICS a single economic market?
No. There is no common BRICS market comparable with the European Union's single market.
Members continue to maintain their own tariffs, regulations, currencies, and industrial and trade policies. UNCTAD notes that intra-BRICS trade remains relatively small compared with the group's overall economic size and trade.
What are the economic priorities of the 18th Summit?
India's chairship has focused on resilience, innovation, cooperation, and sustainability.
The economic agenda includes increasing trade and investment, improving supply chains, supporting small businesses, strengthening financial cooperation, and expanding cooperation in technology and innovation.
Work is also continuing on the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2030, trade facilitation, services, and resilient and diversified Global Value Chains. GVCs are the different stages through which goods and services are produced and moved across countries.
Why are supply chains important?
A supply chain is the network through which raw materials, components, and finished products move between countries and companies.
BRICS members have been discussing ways to make supply chains more reliable and diversified. India has also worked on a BRICS Logistics Supply-Chain Cooperation Framework.
What has BRICS done on finance?
The New Development Bank was established in 2014 to finance infrastructure and sustainable-development projects in member and other developing countries.
The same year, BRICS created the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a financial mechanism intended to provide short-term liquidity support to members facing financial pressures.
Members have also discussed greater use of national currencies in trade and easier cross-border payment arrangements.
Is BRICS creating a common currency?
A common currency is different from using national currencies for trade. Under a national-currency settlement, two countries can conduct a transaction using their own currencies instead of using a third currency for the transaction.
BRICS has discussed greater use of national currencies and improved payment arrangements. India's focus has been on practical cross-border payments and local-currency settlement rather than making a common currency the central objective.
How does BRICS relate to the G20?
The G20 includes major advanced and emerging economies and the European Union. BRICS is a grouping of emerging and developing economies.
There is some membership overlap. BRICS gives its members a separate forum for coordination among themselves, while the G20 provides a wider forum for global economic discussions.
How does BRICS relate to the G7?
The Group of Seven (G7) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the European Union also represented.BRICS was not created as a formal economic counterpart to the G7.
Is BRICS similar to the European Union?
Unlike BRICS, the European Union has common institutions and a single market. Many European Union members also use a common currency, the euro.
How is BRICS different from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a regional organisation with a stronger focus on security, regional cooperation, and political coordination.
What is China's economic position inside BRICS?
China is the largest economy in BRICS and the largest trader within the grouping. UNCTAD identifies China as the largest exporter and importer in intra-BRICS trade. It also finds that China's dependence on BRICS markets is lower than that of several other members.
How different are the BRICS economies?
There are large differences in income and economic size. UNCTAD figures for 2024 put per-capita GDP at about $41,989 for the UAE, $12,706 for China, $2,418 for India, and $869 for Ethiopia.
The members also differ in what they produce and export. Some are major exporters of energy, minerals, and agricultural products, while China and India have much larger manufacturing sectors.
What are the trade disparities?
UNCTAD says seven BRICS members rely heavily on primary products for more than 60% of their exports to other BRICS members.
Other members depend more heavily on commodity exports or on particular BRICS markets.
India has also recorded a substantial trade deficit with BRICS countries. A Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) report put India's BRICS trade deficit at $226.1 billion in financial year 2025–26, compared with $74.5 billion in 2020–21. China, the UAE, and Russia were identified as the main contributors.
Is this only an Indian problem?
No. The members have different trade balances and different degrees of dependence on BRICS markets.
UNCTAD says Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia are among the members more dependent on BRICS markets for their exports, while China has the lowest dependence among the members studied.
What is the United States angle?
The United States is not a BRICS member. Each BRICS country has its own trade, investment, and financial relationship with the US.
The US dollar continues to play a major role in international trade and finance. Discussions within BRICS about national currencies and alternative payment arrangements therefore take place alongside the existing dollar-based financial system.
Why is China-US economic competition relevant to BRICS?
China is a BRICS member and one of the world's largest economies and trading powers. The US is outside BRICS but remains an important economic partner for several members.
Some BRICS countries depend heavily on trade with China, while others have substantial trade and investment links with the US.
What are the main differences within BRICS?
The members differ in economic size, income, production, trade structures, and dependence on external markets.
The grouping includes high-income Gulf economies, large middle-income economies, and lower-income developing economies. Some members export mainly commodities, while others have large manufacturing sectors. Their financial systems and regulatory arrangements also differ.
Has expansion increased these differences?
Yes. Expansion has made the economic differences within BRICS wider. The enlarged grouping includes high-income energy exporters such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as lower-income developing economies such as Ethiopia.
The newer members have brought different levels of industrialisation, income, dependence on commodities, trade patterns, and economic regulations into the grouping.
What is India seeking to advance at the 18th Summit?
India's stated priorities include trade, investment, supply chains, finance, innovation, energy, sustainability, health, agriculture, and development.
The chairship has also focused on small and medium-sized businesses, services, financial cooperation, and emerging technologies.
India has held more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements in more than 25 Indian cities during its 2026 chairship.
What does innovation mean in the BRICS programme?
It includes cooperation in new technologies, startups, and digital systems. A proposed BRICS Incubator Network would connect startups, business incubators, and relevant agencies in member countries. A proposed BRICS Startup Innovation Fund would support early-stage and growth-stage companies.
What does digital cooperation involve?
It includes digital payments and financial technology. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are digital forms of national currencies issued by central banks. They are different from privately issued cryptocurrencies. BRICS members are at different stages in developing and using digital financial systems.
What is the trade challenge before BRICS?
Intra-BRICS trade has grown substantially, but remains relatively small compared with the group's overall economic size and trade. The trade agenda includes reducing barriers, improving trade finance, expanding services trade, and strengthening supply chains.
What is the institutional challenge?
It does not have a central institution with authority over national governments. Its members continue to make their own economic and regulatory decisions.
How large are the 11 BRICS economies, and how do they compare?
The table below uses the latest available nominal GDP, population and per-capita GDP figures (mostly 2024–25) from the IMF/World Bank and the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication to show the scale of asymmetry inside the grouping.
How much of BRICS is actually China?
China is not just the largest BRICS economy; it is the gravitational centre of the grouping’s trade and industrial structure.
Share of BRICS GDP: Using nominal GDP estimates for 2025, China’s $19.6 trillion is about 49–50% of the combined BRICS GDP (around $39–40 trillion).[johnsonwkchoi]
Share of BRICS population: With 1.42–1.44 billion people, China and India together account for about 71% of BRICS’ population, with China alone around 36–37%.
Share of intra-BRICS trade: UNCTAD and GTRI data show China as the largest exporter and importer within intra-BRICS trade, with exports to other members of about $550.8 billion and imports of about $464.9 billion in 2024–25. That implies China accounts for roughly two-thirds of intra-BRICS trade flows by value.
Manufacturing weight: UNCTAD notes that China and India lead intra-bloc manufacturing exports, but China’s industrial base is far larger and more diversified, making it the main supplier of machinery, electronics and intermediate goods to other members.
Trade surpluses/deficits: The BRICS bloc as a whole runs a large merchandise trade surplus with the rest of the world ($1.09 trillion in 2025), but within the bloc, several members run large deficits with China, including India, whose BRICS trade deficit reached $226.1 billion in FY2025–26, driven mainly by imports from China, the UAE and Russia.
What are the tangible achievements of BRICS in 20 years?
After two decades, BRICS has delivered concrete institutions and routines, but many of its more ambitious goals remain aspirational.
Delivered
New Development Bank (NDB): Established in 2014; has approved and disbursed billions of dollars in loans across energy, transport, water and urban projects.[brics.ibge.gov]
Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA): A $100 billion pool created in 2014 to provide short-term liquidity support to members facing balance-of-payments pressures; a standing mechanism, though used sparingly so far.[brics.ibge.gov]
Sectoral cooperation: Working groups and initiatives on trade facilitation, innovation, digital economy, health, agriculture, energy, and supply chains; more than 350 meetings under India’s 2026 chairship alone.
Growth in intra-BRICS trade: Merchandise trade among members expanded more than 13-fold from 2003 to 2024, reaching $1.17 trillion, even if still below potential.[unctad]
Expanded membership: From 4 to 11 full members since 2023, plus a set of partner countries, broadening the grouping’s geographic and demographic reach.
Bibliography
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