The New Delhi Declaration, adopted after marathon negotiations, is a diplomatic win for India—and a test of BRICS’ evolving relevance. Despite differences over West Asia, members found common ground on restraint, civilian protection, sovereignty, diplomacy and nuclear safety.
Importantly, the declaration reasserts BRICS’ ambition to reshape global governance, amplify the Global South and deepen cooperation across finance, trade, technology and development. That sets the stage for the harder task: delivering results.
As BRICS expands and its economic and political weight grows, its credibility will increasingly depend on whether it can build institutions that deliver practical gains. The central question is whether an increasingly diverse grouping can turn collective weight into strategic capacity without demanding political uniformity from its members. That means moving faster on the architecture of a more resilient global economy.
Cross-border payments, greater use of local currencies, development finance, investment platforms, insurance and financial safety nets are no longer abstract ideas. They are responses to a world of unilateral sanctions, tariff shocks, supply-chain disruptions and financial volatility. The challenge is to make these mechanisms interoperable, commercially viable and accessible enough to matter beyond government statements.
Technology will be an acid test. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning about the weaponisation of technology and critical minerals points to a wider contest over who controls the infrastructure of the next economy. BRICS has an opportunity to cooperate on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, critical minerals, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure and technology standards. But it must avoid creating competing technological silos. The same logic applies to health, food and energy security. The grouping has the scale to build stronger pandemic surveillance, medical supply chains, agricultural cooperation and mechanisms to cushion commodity and energy shocks. These are areas where cooperation can produce tangible benefits for citizens while giving the Global South a greater stake in BRICS.
There is also a larger diplomatic task. BRICS cannot become effective by positioning itself merely against the West. Its influence will come from demonstrating that a more multipolar world can also be more stable, representative and capable of solving problems.
India’s presidency secured the consensus it needed. Now comes the harder test: delivery at speed and scale. BRICS must move beyond declarations and convert the Global South’s collective weight into institutions, capabilities and tangible outcomes that can reshape global governance and strengthen its credibility.
