Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to host the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi this weekend, marking the first visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to India since 2019. The event concludes India’s year-long presidency of the bloc, a period defined by efforts to deepen engagement with Beijing and Moscow while managing strained relations with Washington.
Modi recently met both leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on August 31 and September 1. His encounter with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi just two weeks later underscores the intensifying diplomatic activity surrounding the conclusion of India’s chairship.
However, the forum’s expansion from five original members to 11 has exposed significant internal fault lines. Member states hold divergent interests regarding the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East, and their respective relationships with the United States. The inclusion of Iran and the UAE, nations currently at odds over the war in Iran, highlights these challenges. Earlier this year, BRICS foreign ministers were unable to produce a joint statement on the Middle East crisis, forcing India to release a unilateral chair’s statement instead.
Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation, noted that differences between members like Iran and the UAE illustrate the difficulty of finding consensus. While Pant suggested BRICS could still cooperate on reforming global economic governance, he predicted such diplomatic disagreements would become more frequent.
India’s bilateral relationship with China remains a critical factor. Although the two nations reached a border patrol agreement in 2024, ending a four-year military standoff, substantial issues persist. India reports a trade deficit exceeding $112 billion, and disputes over market access continue. Ashok Kantha, a former Indian ambassador to China, described the relationship as one of “armed coexistence and managed competition,” warning that the upcoming meeting should not be mistaken for a complete reset given the heavily militarized border and ongoing security differences.
Domestically, India seeks to balance its strategic autonomy with economic realities. New Delhi is advocating for easier cross-border payments and greater use of national currencies within BRICS but has been careful not to frame this as an attempt to replace the US dollar. Pant emphasized that member states are seeking resilience and alternatives to dollar-based financial arrangements rather than outright de-dollarization.
Despite friction with the Trump administration, India maintains its “America Plus” strategy, according to analyst C. Raja Mohan. This approach prioritizes strong economic and strategic ties with the US, which provides capital, technology, and security, while simultaneously deepening relationships with Russia and China for strategic reasons. Mohan warned that increasing great-power rivalry could complicate this balance, particularly if US-China relations improve or Russia becomes more dependent on China.
As the summit concludes, the central test for Modi is whether India can advance its priorities for the bloc—such as UN and IMF reforms—without allowing BRICS to become dominated by China or reduced to an anti-Western platform.
Armed coexistence seems like a fragile peace with China. Hope those border tensions don’t overshadow the summit discussions.
The fact that they couldn’t even agree on a Middle East statement says everything about how fragmented this group really is now.
De-dollarization sounds good on paper, but can any of these economies actually replace the dollar? I doubt it.
India’s balancing act is incredibly tricky. Hoping they manage to keep BRICS useful rather than just an anti-Western bloc.