BRICS Summit 2026: What Modi, Xi, and Putin Actually Agreed On in New Delhi

BRICS Summit 2026: What Modi, Xi, and Putin Actually Agreed On in New Delhi

For two days in mid-September, New Delhi was the geopolitical center of the world. The 2026 BRICS Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bharat Mandarpam, drew together leaders representing a truly remarkable portion of the world's population and wealth, and they issued a unanimous joint declaration covering some of the most pressing issues in world politics today.

If you're only going to read one article about the BRICS summit, here's what you need to know, beyond the carefully staged group photo op.

Who was in the room

It wasn't just the founding four members of the group (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) plus South Africa: BRICS has grown substantially since 2006, and India's prime minister has reason to want to keep it that way. In addition to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the attendees included Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. Modi met bilaterally with a number of the attendees, and India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, met separately with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the summit.

That means BRICS has become an influential bloc representing a large part of the Global South, and the theme of this year's meeting was all about giving developing nations more of a say in world affairs - a point that Modi mentioned, saying, "the trust of the Global South in BRICS has grown, because their voices are heard."

The New Delhi Declaration

The big news out of the summit was the unanimous adoption of the New Delhi Declaration by all of the attending countries on the first day of the meetings - which is notable because it can be quite challenging to get such a broad coalition of countries to agree on anything at all, let alone something as comprehensive as this document.

There's plenty in the document to please different members: the UN, finance, energy, food, artificial intelligence, and development were all topics covered. On the geopolitical front, it calls for "restraint and calm" in West Asia and promotes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and says that the forced displacement of Palestinians is an issue of concern. It also speaks to an increased risk of a nuclear exchange somewhere in the world, and the need for measures to prevent that even in the midst of ongoing conflicts - a clear reference to events in West Asia, where several nuclear powers are currently engaged in a proxy war.

The document also mentions the need for stable international trade, supply chains, and energy markets, and cites current sanctions and geopolitical tensions as impediments to that stability. A consistent message in the meetings, according to reports from multiple outlets, was the attendees' shared desire to reduce their reliance on the United States, both economically and in terms of the banking and financial system.

The moment that mattered more than the group photo

The photo that made the rounds after the summit was the one of Modi, Xi, and Putin walking hand in hand, and later, of Putin and Modi clasping hands and smiling broadly on stage. It's a powerful visual reminder that, as a bloc, BRICS countries have the power to shape world events, and it's the type of imagery that can help a political union grow both in stature and in membership.

The thing is, the more interesting meeting, based on reports from news outlets covering the summit, was actually a bilateral one between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which took place on the sidelines of the main meetings. The two leaders are representing countries on opposite sides of a currently active war between the US/Israel and Iran, which makes this meeting the most high-profile contact between them since the fighting began in February 2026. In a conference focused on de-escalation, this is the sort of one-on-one diplomacy that has real potential to make an impact.

What Modi actually said

Modi's speech at the opening of the summit was fairly focused on issues of cooperation, rather than competition. He raised concerns about an increase in global conflicts and their impact on ordinary people, and called for dialogue and diplomacy as a means of settling both global and regional disputes. "We may be rooted in different realities, but together, we rise through cooperation and blossom for humanity," he said to the assembled leaders. "May our diversity be our identity, our cooperation our inspiration, and our progress serve all of humanity."

As is often the case with these meetings, the real question is what action will be taken in the wake of this agreement.

What happens next

With India's tenure as BRICS chair coming to an end, and China set to assume that role in 2027, the next big summit will almost certainly have a different focus, one informed by China's priorities.

For now, the outcomes of the 2026 BRICS summit have created a document that reflects a wide range of interests, but which still manages to speak to some of the most pressing global issues of this moment in time: namely, the ongoing conflicts in multiple theaters around the world, and the impact that those have on both global security and the world economy.

This is the sort of agreement that, if followed, could help to de-escalate some of those conflicts, but the mere fact that so many parties are willing to at least discuss the issues is already a positive sign. The importance of this meeting, compared to previous BRICS summits, can probably be chalked up to both the addition of new members and the timing - as mentioned, the meetings took place at the same time as an active war in West Asia, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.