What Is BRICS? India’s 2026 Chairship Explained Simply

BRICS 2026 India explained — if you have been following the news lately, you have probably seen this term come up repeatedly in the context of the Iran war, India’s foreign policy, de-dollarisation, and the US-China rivalry. But most coverage assumes you already know what BRICS is. This article does not. Here is everything you need to know, explained simply.

What Is BRICS?

BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies that meet regularly to coordinate on global economic, political, and development issues. The name is an acronym — it originally stood for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the five founding members.

Think of it as a club of large, fast-growing countries that felt underrepresented in Western-dominated institutions like the G7, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. BRICS was their answer — a platform to push for a world order that gives more weight to the Global South.

The grouping was formalised in 2006 when BRIC Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. South Africa joined in 2011, turning BRIC into BRICS.

Who Are the BRICS Members in 2026?

Member	Year Joined	Why They Matter
Brazil	Founding (2009)	Largest economy in Latin America
Russia	Founding (2009)	Nuclear power, major energy exporter
India	Founding (2009)	World’s most populous country, fastest growing major economy
China	Founding (2009)	World’s second largest economy
South Africa	2011	Gateway to African markets
Egypt	2024	Suez Canal, strategic Middle East position
Ethiopia	2024	Largest country in East Africa by population
Iran	2024	Major oil producer, now at war with US and Israel
UAE	2024	Financial hub of the Middle East
Saudi Arabia	2024	World’s largest oil exporter
Indonesia	2025	Fourth most populous country, Southeast Asia’s largest economy

So BRICS in 2026 is an 11-member bloc — not the original five. This expansion, decided at the Kazan Summit in Russia in 2024, fundamentally changed what BRICS is and what it represents.

Combined, BRICS members now account for roughly 40 percent of the world’s population and about 35 percent of global GDP. That makes it larger than the G7 by population — though the G7 still leads on economic output and military power.

Why Does India Chair BRICS in 2026?

BRICS operates on a rotating chairship — each year a different member country takes the helm, sets the agenda, hosts the meetings, and chairs the annual summit.

India officially assumed the BRICS chairship on January 1, 2026, taking over from Brazil. This is India’s fourth time chairing BRICS — it previously held the chairship in 2012, 2016, and 2021. Crucially, this is the first time India leads the expanded BRICS format with all 11 members.

India’s chairship theme for 2026 is: “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” — or BRICS, fittingly enough. The four priorities — resilience, innovation, cooperation, sustainability — are not just buzzwords. They reflect India’s attempt to position BRICS as a development-focused forum rather than an anti-Western one.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar launched the official BRICS India 2026 logo in January — a lotus, India’s national flower, with petals in the colours of all member nations, and the Namaste gesture at its centre.

India is also set to host the 18th BRICS Summit in 2026, likely later in the year.

What Does India Want to Achieve as BRICS Chair?

Prime Minister Modi has been clear about India’s approach. At the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro in July 2025, he outlined his vision: “Just as, during our G-20 chairmanship, we gave priority to the issues of the Global South in the agenda, similarly during our chairmanship of BRICS, we will take this forum forward in the spirit of people-centricity and humanity first.”

In practice, India’s 2026 agenda covers six main areas:

1. Economic coordination — Strengthening trade among BRICS members, exploring local currency settlements, and reducing dependence on the US dollar in intra-BRICS trade.

2. Technology and AI — India wants BRICS to cooperate on artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, and equitable access to technology. India’s own digital stack — UPI, Aadhaar, DigiLocker — is the model it wants to share with other members.

3. Climate and energy — Clean energy transitions, climate disaster risk reduction systems, and food security cooperation, particularly relevant given the current energy crisis triggered by the Iran war.

4. Health security — Building collective pandemic preparedness. Modi has cited COVID-19 as the lesson: “Viruses do not come taking visas, and solutions too are not chosen by looking at passports.”

5. Counter-terrorism — A priority India has pushed in every multilateral forum it leads, given its own security concerns.

6. Global governance reform — Pushing for reform of the UN Security Council, the IMF, and the World Bank to give emerging economies more voice. This is where India’s BRICS chairship connects directly to its long-standing campaign for a permanent UNSC seat.

What Makes India’s Chairship Complicated

India’s 2026 BRICS chairship comes with some genuine tensions that are worth understanding.

The Iran problem. Iran is now a full BRICS member — and India just watched the US and Israel bomb Iran while staying largely silent. India’s refusal to condemn the strikes has created an uncomfortable dynamic: how does India chair a bloc that includes Iran while maintaining its strategic relationship with the US and Israel? This contradiction will play out through the year.

The China factor. China is India’s biggest rival and its biggest trading partner simultaneously. Within BRICS, China often pushes for more explicitly anti-Western positions — on de-dollarisation, on sanctions, on Ukraine. India consistently resists this framing. The two countries have very different visions of what BRICS should be.

The Russia factor. Russia views BRICS as a platform to build economic alternatives to Western sanctions. India buys Russian oil and maintains strong defence ties with Moscow — but it does not want BRICS to become a sanctions-busting mechanism that invites secondary sanctions from the US.

As The Diplomat noted, India’s approach “favours the patient consolidation of cooperative practices over grand proclamations” — which is diplomatic language for: India will try to keep everyone happy without committing to anything too controversial.

BRICS vs G7 — What Is the Difference?

Factor	BRICS	G7
Members	11	7
Founded	2009 (as BRIC)	1975
GDP share	~35% of global GDP	~43% of global GDP
Population share	~40% of world	~10% of world
Focus	Emerging economies, Global South	Advanced democracies
India’s role	Founding member, 2026 chair	Not a member
Decision making	Consensus-based	Consensus-based
Military alliance	No	No (but NATO overlap)

The key difference is not just economic — it is ideological. The G7 broadly represents the Western liberal order. BRICS broadly represents countries that want to reshape that order — though they disagree sharply on how far to push.

India sits in an unusual position: it is a founding BRICS member while also being a Quad member, a US strategic partner, and increasingly aligned with Western democracies on technology and security. That balancing act defines India’s foreign policy and it is never more visible than during its BRICS chairship.

What Is the New Development Bank?

Set up in 2015 and headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was BRICS’ answer to the World Bank. It lends money to member countries for infrastructure and sustainable development projects. India’s former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley helped negotiate its founding structure — each of the five original members contributed equally, giving no single country dominance.

The NDB has approved over $33 billion in loans since its founding. Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s commitment to strengthening the NDB during the January 2026 chairship launch — describing it as a “credible and financially sustainable institution.”

ThirdPol’s Take

India’s BRICS chairship in 2026 is genuinely consequential — but not for the reasons most coverage suggests.

It is not consequential because India is going to lead a revolution against the Western order. India is not going to do that. It is consequential because India is the only country in the world that can credibly sit in the room with the US, China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the EU simultaneously — and be taken seriously by all of them.

That is a rare diplomatic asset. The question for 2026 is whether India uses the BRICS chairship to build something real — on AI governance, on climate finance, on Global South debt relief — or whether it produces another year of carefully worded communiqués that satisfy everyone and change nothing.

Modi’s track record suggests the former is possible. His G20 chairship in 2023 produced a genuine breakthrough on African Union membership and the Global South debt framework. If he brings that same ambition to BRICS in 2026 — while navigating the Iran contradiction and the China rivalry — it could be the most consequential BRICS chairship yet.

---

Amit Mangal writes on India’s foreign policy and geopolitics at ThirdPol. Follow ThirdPol on X and LinkedIn.