By TheDailyNewsHub
World leaders and senior government officials have begun arriving in New Delhi ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit, which India will host on September 12 and 13 as the expanded grouping seeks to strengthen economic cooperation and coordinate positions on major global issues.
The summit will take place at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, bringing together leaders of the 11 BRICS member states, partner countries and outreach invitees. India assumed the BRICS chairmanship on January 1, 2026, for its fourth term since the group’s establishment.
Among the prominent leaders expected in New Delhi are Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also attending, while the United Arab Emirates is represented by Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled.
Russia’s Putin arrived in New Delhi on Friday, marking his first in-person attendance at a BRICS summit outside Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He is expected to hold bilateral discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders during the visit.
South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has also arrived in New Delhi to participate in the summit, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
The gathering comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the expanded BRICS bloc, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, growing tensions between the United States and China and disruptions to global trade routes creating difficult geopolitical and economic challenges.
The ongoing conflict involving Iran is expected to be among the most challenging issues for the summit. Iran is a BRICS member, while the United Arab Emirates, another member, has been affected by the regional conflict. The differing positions of BRICS countries could make it difficult for the group to reach consensus on a joint response to the Middle East crisis.
India is hosting the summit under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”The theme reflects New Delhi’s focus on development, innovation, economic cooperation and strengthening the role of emerging economies in global affairs.
The Indian government says more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements have been held in more than 25 cities during its year-long BRICS chairmanship, covering political and security cooperation, economic and financial issues, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Economic cooperation is expected to feature prominently at the summit. India is pushing initiatives focused on startups, innovation, resilient supply chains, green energy and greater use of national currencies in trade, alongside calls for reforms of global financial and governance institutions.
Leaders are also expected to consider proposals for a BRICS Startup Innovation Fund, a BRICS Incubator Network and a framework for cooperation on logistics and supply chains. The initiatives are intended to deepen practical economic cooperation among member states.
The summit is taking place as BRICS has grown significantly beyond its original five members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The grouping now has 11 members: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE.
Together, the 11 members account for about 49.5 per cent of the world’s population, 40 per cent of global GDP and 26 per cent of global trade, according to India’s Press Information Bureau.
The expansion has increased BRICS’ economic and geopolitical weight but has also made consensus more difficult because its members have different political systems, economic interests and foreign-policy priorities.
For India, the summit is also an opportunity to demonstrate its strategy of maintaining relationships with competing global powers. New Delhi has sought to preserve strong ties with Russia and other BRICS members while simultaneously maintaining important economic and strategic relationships with the United States and its Western allies.
The summit will therefore test whether the enlarged BRICS grouping can translate its growing economic weight into practical cooperation and a coordinated voice on global issues.
As leaders gather in New Delhi, attention will be focused on the outcome of their discussions, particularly on global governance reform, trade, technology, energy security, financial cooperation and the conflicts affecting the international economy.
The 18th BRICS Summit is scheduled for September 12–13, 2026, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
TheDailyNewsHub will continue to follow developments from the BRICS Summit and report on decisions that could affect Nigeria, Africa and the wider global economy.