Consensus Amid a Polarised BRICS: A Diplomatic Breakthrough for India

That India successfully managed to forge a consensus at the 18th BRICS Summit 2026 to arrive at the New Delhi Declaration reflects more than its diplomatic finesse. It exemplifies India’s role as a bridge builder and as a thread that can link disparate units together into a unified whole. In this sense, India has belied the naysayers and the sceptics who doubted her ability to bridge the chasm among member states, particularly between Iran and the UAE. The joint communique that had proven to be elusive during the BRICS foreign ministers meeting earlier this year finally found expression in the New Delhi Declaration, vindicating India’s diplomatic agility and its ability to rally everyone together in the common pursuit of shared prosperity. This diplomatic success must be seen in the backdrop of the deeply fragmented and polarised geopolitical landscape that India found itself grappling with while presiding over the BRICS. The US and Israel led war against Iran that began in February 2026 significantly widened hostilities between the Gulf States and Iran. Yet, New Delhi summit provided a forum for Iran and the UAE to manage their differences and arrive at a common ground. This has also proved the sceptics who reduced an expanded BRICS to be an unwieldy talk shop wrong. Not that differences ceased to exist or that hostilities abated or the contradictions within BRICS member states got eliminated. But India was able to create conducive conditions for narrowing the contradictions and managing the differences in the larger interest of humankind.

Yet, this is not the first time that India has been able to get hostile actors onto the negotiating table in order to foster reconciliation. It had done so during its G20 presidency in 2023 when the Russia-Ukraine conflict polarised the world, hardening the positions of major powers. And if one goes back in history, India’s intervention in the Korean War (1950-1953) helped reach a compromise on the exchange of prisoners.

This clearly demonstrates that Indian diplomacy has succeeded time and again in positioning itself as a vital link amid a fragmented world order. It has been made possible due to the assertion of its strategic autonomy and refusal to get entangled in competing blocs or alliances. Whether it was Non- Alignment of the 20th century or today’s Multi-Alignment, India has been able to dexterously manoeuvre its strategic policy choices in a manner that blends normative principles with its national interest.

Take the BRICS Summit 2026. This year’s theme places Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability at the heart of BRICS agenda thus undergirding the summit with normative principles. The initiative for drawing up ten proposals for reforming global governance architecture into a “BRICS Reform Roadmap” reflects India’s unwavering commitment to upholding a rules based international order whilst making it more just and equitable. India’s call for democratising the multilateral order was emphatically displayed when it said that “pyramid of privilege must give way to platform of partnership”. India was equally forthright in denouncing unilateral coercive economic measures resorted by the West in forms of sanctions and protectionist measures such as tariffs. At the same time, India has been careful in not projecting BRICS as an Anti-Western grouping which some of its members like China, Russia and Iran would have wanted it to become. As India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar rightly put it “BRICS is a non-Western grouping not an Anti-West alliance”. Which is why India has never been a votary of BRICS currency as a step towards de-dollarisation even if it has supported local currency settlement and interoperability of payment and messaging systems to de-risk the dollar dependency.

Indeed, India has had to perform a difficult balancing act in shepherding the BRICS grouping as its chair. After all, it has been at the receiving end of American unilateralism in the form of high tariffs including sanctions for buying Russian energy. Also, president Trump has openly threatened BRICS countries for challenging the dollar supremacy. Furthermore, Iran’s presence amid an ongoing conflict with the US is bound to attract American ire. Yet, New Delhi did not shy away from deepening its partnership with Moscow which was visible in the Modi- Putin talks on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. Similarly, in an ostensible tightrope walk, New Delhi rolled out the red carpet for Tehran which was captured by the Modi-Pezeshkian bonhomie that was in full display during the summit. India also used its good offices to harmonize the differences between Iran and the UAE, both of which are important relationships for India. And the images of PM Modi, Russian President Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping coming together in a display of camaraderie was not just about optics. It carried a deeper message for the world – that the rising powers and emerging economies will not capitulate to the whims of the Western powers. The fact that New Delhi could perform this strategic manoeuvring even in the midst of its ongoing trade talks with Washington is an unmistakable display of strategic autonomy. This is multi-vector diplomacy manifesting itself.

Besides, the much-anticipated meeting between the leadership of New Delhi and Beijing on the sidelines of the BRICS summit has taken forward the momentum of normalisation of ties that began after the talks at the BRICS Summit in Kazan 2024. The commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question is a welcome development.

Moreover, India has always championed the cause of rooting BRICS as a forum for practical collaboration rather than turning it into an abstract talk shop. Which is why PM Modi’s exhortation to “translate the unity and consensus within BRICS into concrete results on global stage” is apposite. In this regard, PM Modi’s proposal for a “BRICS Continuity and implementation mechanism” assumes salience and will help institutionalise BRICS by ensuring follow up of all initiatives and outcomes through the troika mechanism. With over 350 meeting held in various formats in the run up to the summit, important initiatives have been championed by India in domains such as digital public infrastructure, health architecture, startups and MSME collaboration, agriculture, space, energy, climate change and disaster management to name a few. Clearly, New Delhi has emphasised pragmatic collaboration and implementation rather than a proliferation of abstract declarations.

Above all, India has used its chairmanship of BRICS to amplify the voice of the ‘Global South’ as it did during its G20 presidency in 2023. At a time when China is leaving no stone unturned to project itself as the leader of the global south, India’s presidency could not have come at a more opportune moment. Through its open, transparent, sustainable and development-oriented partnership with the member states of the global south, India has demonstrated its superiority over an opaque, predatory and unsustainable model pioneered by China. In fact, New Delhi was emphatic in its call for the global south to become the rule-shaper rather than a rule-taker, thus demonstrating India’s commitment towards mainstreaming global south on the global stage.

While critics have often accused India to be a fence sitter as far as the Russia-Ukraine conflict is concerned, there could not have been a stronger repudiation of this imputation than the unequivocal exhortation by the Indian leadership to move from endless wars to the end of the war. Likewise, India strongly emphasised on dialogue, consultation and diplomacy as means to address existing conflicts and prevent future conflicts from emanating. That India used the BRICS summit to reinforce the message of peace is a manifestation of its ethos of Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam or the whole world being one family. The fact that Iran and the UAE backed the New Delhi Declaration urging maximum restraint on all parties to the conflict in West Asia, is a testament to India’s deft diplomacy. This also showcases India’s firm commitment of ensuring human centricity as the cornerstone of global decision making. India’s proposal to set up a Seafarers’ Emergency Support Network should be seen in this light, especially when India has lost so many of its seafarers in the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Finally, the real achievement of the 2026 BRICS summit lies not just in the functional deliverables or even the consensus it finally managed to forge. Its real achievement, instead, lies in holding up a mirror to the world, particularly the entrenched powers that continue to hegemonise the world order. It has clearly signalled that the post Second World War multilateral architecture must be reformed to reflect the contemporary geopolitical realities of the 21st century.

However, the true redemption for the BRICS grouping will not lie in replacing the existing multilateral order or in just acting as a counter-weight to the global West. Its true redemption will lie in reconfiguring multilateralism to make it inclusive, equitable and relevant to the present times. The 2026 summit has successfully catalysed this agenda for the betterment of humankind and making the world a peaceful, inclusive and just place to live in.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Statecraft Institute.