One of the founding members of BRICS, and having already held its Presidency thrice i.e. 2012, 2016 and 2021, India again assumed its Chair for the fourth time on January 1, 2026. Now India plans to host the 18^th BRICS Summit from September 12-13, 2026, wherein the leaders of the BRICS member nations and partner countries are likely to participate in addition to the outreach invitees[1].

India’s Chairpersonship of the BRICS comes at a time when the world order is under extreme turmoil with the great power rivalry constantly intensifying. The Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing US-Iran conflict further complicate the existing international equations. What is disturbing is that these conflicts are globally penetrating into the trade, technology, energy and finance sectors, destabilising the equilibrium.

Given the enhancing international image of India and its diplomatic philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, we can safely assume that the Chairpersonship of BRICS would potentially benefit India especially in terms of its diplomatic visibility. India’s current theme of BRICS i.e. “Building for resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” aptly demonstrate this internationalistic initiative.

At the 2025 Rio Summit, India had articulated a human-centric approach through the principle of “Humanity First” that places people-centric development, inclusivity and the interests of the Global South at the epicenter of India’s engagement with BRICS. It would, however be the real challenge to translate this philosophy into a practicable BRICS agenda, the one that can produce, the tangible strategic and development-oriented outcomes for India.

BRICS in Face of India’s Strategic Autonomy

As BRICS has progressively evolved from a five member to the present eleven-member configuration in 2025 having expanded manifold into demographic, economic, energy and geo-political heft, we can see it becoming more heterogeneous in character than ever before[1].

Indian foreign policy is largely characterised by the underlying tenets of strategic autonomy, multi-alignment and issue-based coalition building[2]. Therefore, while India engages with the USA and its allies through QUAD and other mechanisms, it also maintains important defence and energy collaborations with Russia, while at the sametime managing a dialogue with China, besides deepening its strategic partnership with the Gulf countries and expanding its engagement with Africa, South East Asia and Latin America.

BRICS can be seen aptly complementing this architecture by providing India a diplomatic advantage to engage multiple centers of power almost simultaneously. Infact, in a highly polarised world order the avoidance of binary choices becomes an instrument of national power. The ideal perspective therefore would be the Strategic Autonomy transformed into Strategic ability. This will not only help in resisting the pressure from the competing powers but also in shaping the environment, wherein the entire ecosystem will operate.

BRICS amidst War and Strategic Disruptions

The contemporary global security environment reinforces the direct relevance of BRICS to India’s national interests. The Russia-Ukraine war has demonstrated as to how can a regional conflict impact the global prices for energy, fertilisers, food security, shipping, defence supply chains and financial stability. This apart, the continuing instability in West Asia also directly affects India’s energy security, maritime trade, diaspora interests and connectivity ambitions.

Considering the above, the following tenets of BRICS coined by India acquire special significance: –

• Resilience. It should translate into stronger supply chains, diversified energy sources, food and health security, critical mineral access, cyber resilience and financial stability. India’s objective, therefore should be to reduce the excessive dependence on any single geography, supplier, technology ecosystem or financial channel.
• This too is strategic. Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, quantum technologies bio-technology, space and digital infrastructure are rapidly becoming the components of the national power. India’s experience with the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) provides it with an opportunity to promote a development-oriented model of technological collaborations-specially for the Global South.
• Cooperation. We need to understand that the members may always not agree on every geo-political issue. India, therefore has scope of promoting the cooperation with ideological uniformity focussing upon the areas of shared interests.
• Sustainability, can be understood in light of the fact that, Climate Resilience, Disaster Preparedness, Affordable Energy Transitions and access to development finance are integral to the long-term stability of emerging economies.

 BRICS: The Diplomatic Payouts for India

The current Presidency of BRICS provides it a significant Agenda Setting Power and India should farsightedly use this as an opportunity to promote the following important objectives: –

• The current Indian Presidency of BRICS should be seen as India’s approach to the global governance being a strong ground for demanding greater representation in the UN Security Council and international financial institutions.
• India, to its own advantage, should use BRICS with strategic flexibility as an additional platform for the emerging powers to articulate their interests while at the sametime retaining an active dialogue process with the USA, Europe Japan and other advanced economies.
• This presidency also potentially accords brighter prospects to India to strengthen its position as a bridging power between the Global South and other established centers of global power, given its ability to effectively communicate with the competing geo-political camps, which also gives it a diplomatic capital that few other major powers possess.

Need for Pragmatism

India should continue to avoid taking sides in every geopolitical contest but prefer choosing promotion of its national interests, while retaining the capacity to speak to all the sides freely.

While the expanded BRICS grouping provides India an access to the major energy producers, consumer markets, investment pools and emerging economic centers-India’s strategic objectives need to go beyond enhancing the intra-BRICS trade activities to more proactively building the economic resilience through diversification. India needs to focus more upon making greater utilisation of national currencies, more efficient cross border payment mechanisms and interoperable digital payment systems.

BRICS cooperation also has a larger scope of creating and sustaining diversified supply chains of critical minerals, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing artificial intelligence, energy, pharmaceuticals, food and fertiliser security, space technologies, infrastructure and resilient connectivity.

The way forward

India can immensely benefit from this presidency by being starkly objective, as this cooperation-however best visualised, remains fraught with the constraints that mainly arise from the member nations having divergent stands-on the ongoing conflicts and emerging sanctions, impacting the global finance amidst economic asymmetries that may exist within the grouping.

The fruits of this Presidency will depend Not upon the number of declarations that may be made in the process, but upon the extent to which India can create and sustain the implementable mechanisms and durable institutions-while sustaining the homogeneity of perspectives of the members on the common issues, conforming to the philosophy of delivery-oriented multilateralism.

The best contribution that India can make, would be to combine its strategic realism with the human centrism in conduct of the international relations. The aim therefore should be to prevent the member nations from external shocks and secure the equal opportunity to all, amidst a binding digital governance. The human security, national security and regional security also have to co-exist and converge.

The efforts of India need to be in the direction of securing the member nations comprehensively, so as to ensure that the strategic autonomy can transform into strategic assertiveness, in a single voice.

By ensuring “Sabka sath, sabka vikas aur sabka vishwas” India enjoys bright chances of strengthening its stature as a Vishwaguru– a nation which has an equal degree of comfort with the developed nations on one hand and the Global South on the other. The Indian focus therefore needs to be on convergence of strategic autonomy and strategic alliances, for global good with an aim of “Humanity First” at the center.

We, being informed citizens of India, have strong reasons to believe that India can handle this Presidency responsibly and advantageously, indirectly facilitating its transition from being an influential participant in the dynamics of world order, to being a credible architect of a resilient, representative, multipolar and all-inclusive international order.

[1] “18th BRICS Summit”, MEA Press Release, August 27, 2026, https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases?dtl/41701

[2] “Is BRICS looking to expand as New Delhi summit nears?”, FirstPost, September 2, 2026, https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/is-brics-looking-to-expand-as-new-delhi-summit-nears-14042651.html

[3] “The Multi-Alignment Advantage in India’s Foreign Policy Evolution for Maximizing Strategic Autonomy and Economic Growth”, Shaji George, Partners Universal Innovative Research Publication, Vol-3, No, 4 (2025) PUIRP,DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17009568,https://www.puirp.com/index.php/research/article/view/128