The 18th BRICS Summit was held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on 12-13 September 2026, marking the culmination of India's year-long BRICS chairship, held under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability." By 2026, the BRICS grouping had expanded to 11 member countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates, alongside Saudi Arabia, whose exact membership status remained a subject of some ambiguity even among BRICS' own members.
At the summit, the 11-member grouping unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, a 45-page document running to 140 points, the product of more than 400 meetings and engagements involving ministers, parliamentarians, agencies, officials, experts, businesses, and civil society across 30 Indian cities during India's chairmanship. The declaration placed renewed emphasis on reforming the global governance system and making international institutions more representative of the developing world.
Beyond the declaration itself, the summit produced more than 50 concrete outcomes, initiatives, and mechanisms, including a BRICS Payment Task Force mandated to advance local-currency trade settlement, the endorsement of India's proposal to host a BRICS Risk Lab at GIFT City, Gujarat, and a BRICS digital public infrastructure repository. India's own manufacturing-sector engagement with the bloc, through the National Productivity Council's earlier designation as the India Centre for BRICS Industrial Competencies, also featured among the initiatives showcased during India's chairship year.